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Electric-field control of local ferromagnetism using a magnetoelectric multiferroic

Nature Materials volume 7, pages 478–482 (2008)Cite this article

A Corrigendum to this article was published on 01 August 2008

Abstract

Multiferroics are of interest for memory and logic device applications, as the coupling between ferroelectric and magnetic properties enables the dynamic interaction between these order parameters. Here, we report an approach to control and switch local ferromagnetism with an electric field using multiferroics. We use two types of electromagnetic coupling phenomenon that are manifested in heterostructures consisting of a ferromagnet in intimate contact with the multiferroic BiFeO3. The first is an internal, magnetoelectric coupling between antiferromagnetism and ferroelectricity in the BiFeO3 film that leads to electric-field control of the antiferromagnetic order. The second is based on exchange interactions at the interface between a ferromagnet (Co0.9Fe0.1) and the antiferromagnet. We have discovered a one-to-one mapping of the ferroelectric and ferromagnetic domains, mediated by the colinear coupling between the magnetization in the ferromagnet and the projection of the antiferromagnetic order in the multiferroic. Our preliminary experiments reveal the possibility to locally control ferromagnetism with an electric field.

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Figure 1: An approach for electrical control of ferromagnetism.
Figure 2: Structural and chemical characterization of exchange heterostructures.
Figure 3: Microscopic evidence for coupling.
Figure 4: Mechanism of coupling in CoFe/BFO heterostructures.
Figure 5: Dynamic switching device structure.
Figure 6: Electrical control of local ferromagnetism.

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Acknowledgements

The work at Berkeley is supported by the Director, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Sciences Division of the US Department of Energy under contract No. DE-AC02-05CH1123. The authors from both Berkeley and Stanford would also like to acknowledge the support of the Western Institute of Nanoelectronics and acknowledge the support of the National Center for Electron Microscopy, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

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Author notes

  1. Ying-Hao Chu and Lane W. Martin: These authors contributed equally to this work

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720, USA

    Ying-Hao Chu, Lane W. Martin, Qian Zhan, Pei-Ling Yang & R. Ramesh

  2. Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720, USA

    Ying-Hao Chu, Mikel B. Holcomb, Martin Gajek, Qing He, Nina Balke, Chan-Ho Yang, Qian Zhan, Pei-Ling Yang & R. Ramesh

  3. Materials Science Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA

    Ying-Hao Chu, Lane W. Martin, Mikel B. Holcomb & R. Ramesh

  4. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University, Palo Alto, California 94305, USA

    Shu-Jen Han, Donkoun Lee, Wei Hu & Shan X. Wang

  5. Swiss Light Source, Paul Scherrer Institut, Villigen PSI, CH-5232, Switzerland

    Arantxa Fraile-Rodríguez

  6. Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA

    Andreas Scholl

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  1. Ying-Hao Chu
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Correspondence to Lane W. Martin.

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Chu, YH., Martin, L., Holcomb, M. et al. Electric-field control of local ferromagnetism using a magnetoelectric multiferroic. Nature Mater 7, 478–482 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat2184

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