No Arabic abstract
Electric-field (E-field) control of magnetism enabled by multiferroics has the potential to revolutionize the landscape of present memory devices plagued with high energy dissipation. To date, this E-field controlled multiferroic scheme at room temperature has only been demonstrated using BiFeO3 (BFO) films grown on DyScO3 (refs 1 and 2), a unique and expensive substrate, which gives rise to a particular ferroelectric domain pattern in BFO. Here, we demonstrate reversible E-field-induced switching of the magnetic state of the Co layer in Co/BFO (001) thin film heterostructures fabricated on SrTiO3 substrates. The angular dependence of the coercivity and the remanent magnetization of the Co layer indicates that its easy axis reversibly switches by 45{deg} back and forth between the (100) and the (110) crystallographic directions of SrTiO3 as a result of alternating application of positive and negative voltage pulses on BFO. The coercivity of the Co layer exhibits a hysteretic behavior between two states as a function of voltage. To explain the observation, we have also measured the exact canting angle of the antiferromagnetic G-type domain in BFO films for the first time using neutron diffraction. These results suggest a pathway to integrating BFO-based devices on Si wafers for implementing low power consumption and non-volatile magnetoelectronic devices.
We propose a way to use electric-field to control the magnetic ordering of the tetragonal BiFeO3. Based on systematic first-principles studies of the epitaxial strain effect on the ferroelectric and magnetic properties of the tetragonal BiFeO3, we find that there exists a transition from C-type to G-type antiferromagnetic (AFM) phase at in-plane constant a ~ 3.905 {AA} when the ferroelectric polarization is along [001] direction. Such magnetic phase transition can be explained by the competition between the Heisenberg exchange constant J1c and J2c under the influence of biaxial strain. Interestingly, when the in-plane lattice constant enlarges, the preferred ferroelectric polarization tends to be canted and eventually lies in the plane (along [110] direction). It is found that the orientation change of ferroelectric polarization, which can be realized by applying external electric-field, has significant impact on the Heisenberg exchange parameters and therefore the magnetic orderings of tetragonal BiFeO3. For example, at a ~ 3.79 {AA}, an electric field along [111] direction with magnitude of 2 MV/cm could change the magnetic ordering from C-AFM to G-AFM. As the magnetic ordering affects many physical properties of the magnetic material, e.g. magnetoresistance, we expect such strategy would provide a new avenue to the application of multiferroic materials.
First-principles density-functional theory calculations show switching magnetization by 90 degree can be achieved in ultrathin BFO film by applying external electric-field. Up-spin carriers appear to the surface with positive field while down-spin ones to the negative field surface, arising from the redistribution of Fe-t2g orbital. The half-metallic behavior of Fe-3d states in the surface of R phase film makes it a promising candidate for AFM/FM bilayer heterostructure possessing electric-field tunable FM magnetization reversal and opens a new way towards designing spintronic multiferroics. The interface exchange-bias effect in this BFO/FM bilayer is mainly driven by the Fe-t2g orbital reconstruction, as well as spin transferring and rearrangement.
Control of magnetic domain wall motion by electric fields has recently attracted scientific attention because of its potential for magnetic logic and memory devices. Here, we report on a new driving mechanism that allows for magnetic domain wall motion in an applied electric field without the concurrent use of a magnetic field or spin-polarized electric current. The mechanism is based on elastic coupling between magnetic and ferroelectric domain walls in multiferroic heterostructures. Pure electric-field driven magnetic domain wall motion is demonstrated for epitaxial Fe films on BaTiO$_3$ with in-plane and out-of-plane polarized domains. In this system, magnetic domain wall motion is fully reversible and the velocity of the walls varies exponentially as a function of out-of-plane electric field strength.
The photovoltaic effect in the BiFeO3/TiO2 heterostructures can be tuned by epitaxial strain and an electric field in the visible-light region which is manifested by the enhancement of absorption activity in the heterojunction under tensile strain and an electric field based on the first-principles calculations. It is suggested that there are coupling between photon, spin carrier, charge, orbital, and lattice in the interface of the bilayer film which makes the heterojunction an intriguing candidate towards fabricating the multifunctional photoelectric devices based on spintronics. The microscopic mechanism involved in the heterostruces is related deeply with the spin transfer and charge rearrangement between the Fe 3d and O 2p orbitals in the vicinity of the interface.
We examine the magnetic easy-axis directions of stoichiometric magnetite films grown on SrTiO3:Nb by infrared pulsed-laser deposition. Spin-polarized low-energy electron microscopy reveals that the individual magnetic domains are magnetized along the in-plane <100> film directions. Magneto-optical Kerr effect measurements show that the maxima of the remanence and coercivity are also along in-plane <100> film directions. This easy-axis orientation differs from bulk magnetite and films prepared by other techniques, establishing that the magnetic anisotropy can be tuned by film growth.