RESUMEN
Electric-field control of magnetism in ferromagnetic/ferroelectric multiferroic heterostructures is a promising way to realize fast and nonvolatile random-access memory with high density and low-power consumption. An important issue that has not been solved is the magnetic responses to different types of ferroelectric-domain switching. Here, for the first time three types of magnetic responses are reported induced by different types of ferroelectric domain switching with in situ electric fields in the CoFeB mesoscopic discs grown on PMN-PT(001), including type I and type II attributed to 109°, 71°/180° ferroelectric domain switching, respectively, and type III attributed to a combined behavior of multiferroelectric domain switching. Rotation of the magnetic easy axis by 90° induced by 109° ferroelectric domain switching is also found. In addition, the unique variations of effective magnetic anisotropy field with electric field are explained by the different ferroelectric domain switching paths. The spatially resolved study of electric-field control of magnetism on the mesoscale not only enhances the understanding of the distinct magnetic responses to different ferroelectric domain switching and sheds light on the path of ferroelectric domain switching, but is also important for the realization of low-power consumption and high-speed magnetic random-access memory utilizing these materials.
RESUMEN
Intrinsic spatial inhomogeneity or phase separation in cuprates, manganites, etc., related to electronic and/or magnetic properties, has attracted much attention due to its significance in fundamental physics and applications. Here we use scanning Kerr microscopy and scanning electron microscopy with polarization analysis with in situ electric fields to reveal the existence of intrinsic spatial inhomogeneity of the magnetic response to an electric field on a mesoscale with the coexistence of looplike (nonvolatile) and butterfly-like (volatile) behaviors in Co40Fe40B20/Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)0.7Ti0.3O3 ferromagnetic/ferroelectric (FM/FE) multiferroic heterostructures. Both the experimental results and micromagnetic simulations suggest that these two behaviors come from the 109° and the 71°/180° FE domain switching, respectively, which have a spatial distribution. This FE domain-switching-controlled magnetism is significant for understanding the nature of FM/FE coupling on the mesoscale and provides a path for designing magnetoelectric devices through domain engineering.
RESUMEN
Electric-field control of magnetism in multiferroic heterostructures composed of Co40Fe40B20 (CoFeB) and (1-x)Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-xPbTiO3 (PMN-xPT) with different ferroelectric phases via changing composition and temperature is explored. It is demonstrated that the nonvolatile looplike bipolar-electric-field-controlled magnetization, previously found in the CoFeB/PMN-xPT heterostructures with PMN-xPT in the rhombohedral (R) phase around the morphotropic phase boundary (MPB), also occurs for PMN-xPTs with both R phase (far away from MPB) and monoclinic (M) phase, suggesting that the phenomenon is the common feature of CoFeB/PMN-xPT multiferroic heterostructures for PMN-xPT with different phases. The magnitude of the effect changes with increasing temperature and volatile bipolar-electric-field-controlled magnetization with a butterflylike behavior occurs when the ferroelectric phase changes to the tetragonal phase (T). Moreover, for the R-phase sample with x = 0.18, an abrupt and giant increase of magnetization is observed at a characteristic temperature in the temperature dependence of magnetization curve. These results are discussed in terms of coupling between magnetism and ferroelectric domains including macro- and microdomains for different ferroelectric phases. This work is helpful for understanding the phenomena of electric-field control of magnetism in FM/FE multiferroic heterostructures and is also important for applications.