Antiferromagnetic and magnetoelectric Cr2O3-surfaces strongly affect the
electronic properties in half metallic CrO2. We show the presence of a Cr2O3
surface layer on CrO3 grains by high-resolution transmission electron
microscopy. The effect of these surface layers is demonstrated by measurements
of the temperature variation of the magnetoelectric susceptibility. A major
observation is a sign change at about 100 K followed by a monotonic rise as a
function of temperature. These electric field induced moments in CrO3 are
correlated with the magnetoelectric susceptibility of pure Cr2O3. This study
indicates that it is important to take into account the magnetoelectric
character of thin surface layers of Cr2O3 in granular CrO2 for better
understanding the transport mechanism in this system. The observation of a
finite magnetoelectric susceptibility near room temperature may find utility in
device applications.Comment: Figure 1 with strongly reduced resolutio
