Emergent Magnetism with Continuous Control in the Ultrahigh-Conductivity Layered Oxide PdCoO2

The current challenge to realizing continuously tunable magnetism lies in our inability to systematically change properties, such as valence, spin, and orbital degrees of freedom, as well as crystallographic geometry. Here, we demonstrate that ferromagnetism can be externally turned on with the application of low-energy helium implantation and can be subsequently erased and returned to the pristine state via annealing.

This high level of continuous control is made possible by targeting magnetic metastability in the ultrahigh-conductivity, nonmagnetic layered oxide PdCoO₂ where local lattice distortions generated by helium implantation induce the emergence of a net moment on the surrounding transition metal octahedral sites. These highly localized moments communicate through the itinerant metal states, which trigger the onset of percolated long-range ferromagnetism. The ability to continuously tune competing interactions enables tailoring precise magnetic and magnetotransport responses in an ultrahigh-conductivity film and will be critical to applications across spintronics.