Dynamic in situ observation of voltage-driven repeatable magnetization reversal at room temperature.

Purely voltage-driven, repeatable magnetization reversal provides a tantalizing potential for the development of spintronic devices with a minimum amount of power consumption. Substantial progress has been made in this subject especially on magnetic/ferroelectric heterostructures. Here, we report the in situ observation of such phenomenon in a NiFe thin film grown directly on a rhombohedral Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)0.7Ti0.3O3(PMN-PT) ferroelectric crystal. Under a cyclic voltage applied perpendicular to the PMN-PT without a magnetic field, the local magnetization of NiFe can be repetitively reversed through an out-of-plane excursion and then back into the plane. Using phase field simulations we interpret magnetization reversal as a synergistic effect of the metastable ferroelastic switching in the PMN-PT and an electrically rotatable local exchange bias field arising from the heterogeneously distributed NiO clusters at the interface.

Dynamic in situ visualization of voltage-driven magnetic domain evolution in multiferroic heterostructures.

Voltage control of magnetism in multiferroic heterostructures provides a promising solution to the excessive heating in spintronic devices. Direct observation of voltage-modulated magnetic domain evolution dynamics is desirable for studying the mechanism of the voltage control of magnetism at mesoscale, but has remained challenging. Here we explored a characterization method for the dynamic in situ evolution of pure voltage modulated magnetic domains in the heterostructures by employing the scanning Kerr microscopy function in the magneto optic Kerr effect system. The local magnetization reorientation of a Ni/PMN-PT heterostructure were characterized under sweeping applied voltage on the PMN-PT single crystal, and the results show that the magnetization rotation angle in the local regions is much greater than that obtained from macroscopic magnetization hysteresis loops.

Magnetization Reversal by Out-of-plane Voltage in BiFeO3-based Multiferroic Heterostructures.

Voltage controlled 180° magnetization reversal has been achieved in BiFeO3-based multiferroic heterostructures, which is promising for the future development of low-power spintronic devices. However, all existing reports involve the use of an in-plane voltage that is unfavorable for practical device applications. Here, we investigate, using phase-field simulations, the out-of-plane (i.e., perpendicular to heterostructures) voltage controlled magnetism in heterostructures consisting of CoFe nanodots and (110) BiFeO3 thin film or island. It is predicted that the in-plane component of the canted magnetic moment at the CoFe/BiFeO3 interface can be reversed repeatedly by applying a perpendicular voltage across the bottom (110) BiFeO3 thin film, which further leads to an in-plane magnetization reversal in the overlaying CoFe nanodot. The non-volatility of such perpendicular voltage controlled magnetization reversal can be achieved by etching the continuous BiFeO3 film into isolated nanoislands with the same in-plane sizes as the CoFe nanodot. The findings would provide general guidelines for future experimental and engineering efforts on developing the electric-field controlled spintronic devices with BiFeO3-based multiferroic heterostructures.

Full 180° magnetization reversal with electric fields.

Achieving 180° magnetization reversal with an electric field rather than a current or magnetic field is a fundamental challenge and represents a technological breakthrough towards new memory cell designs. Here we propose a mesoscale morphological engineering approach to accomplishing full 180° magnetization reversals with electric fields by utilizing both the in-plane piezostrains and magnetic shape anisotropy of a multiferroic heterostructure. Using phase-field simulations, we examined a patterned single-domain nanomagnet with four-fold magnetic axis on a ferroelectric layer with electric-field-induced uniaxial strains. We demonstrated that the uniaxial piezostrains, if non-collinear to the magnetic easy axis of the nanomagnet at certain angles, induce two successive, deterministic 90° magnetization rotations, thereby leading to full 180° magnetization reversals.

Bipolar loop-like non-volatile strain in the (001)-oriented Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-PbTiO3 single crystals.

Strain has been widely used to manipulate the properties of various kinds of materials, such as ferroelectrics, semiconductors, superconductors, magnetic materials, and "strain engineering" has become a very active field. For strain-based information storage, the non-volatile strain is very useful and highly desired. However, in most cases, the strain induced by converse piezoelectric effect is volatile. In this work, we report a non-volatile strain in the (001)-oriented Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-PbTiO3 single crystals and demonstrate an approach to measure the non-volatile strain. A bipolar loop-like S-E curve is revealed and a mechanism involving 109° ferroelastic domain switching is proposed. The non-volatile high and low strain states should be significant for applications in information storage.

Effect of strain on voltage-controlled magnetism in BiFeO3-based heterostructures.

Voltage-modulated magnetism in magnetic/BiFeO3 heterostructures can be driven by a combination of the intrinsic ferroelectric-antiferromagnetic coupling in BiFeO3 and the antiferromagnetic-ferromagnetic exchange interaction across the heterointerface. However, ferroelectric BiFeO3 film is also ferroelastic, thus it is possible to generate voltage-induced strain in BiFeO3 that could be applied onto the magnetic layer across the heterointerface and modulate magnetism through magnetoelastic coupling. Here, we investigated, using phase-field simulations, the role of strain in voltage-controlled magnetism for these BiFeO3-based heterostructures. It is predicted, under certain condition, coexistence of strain and exchange interaction will result in a pure voltage-driven 180° magnetization reversal in BiFeO3-based heterostructures.

Film size-dependent voltage-modulated magnetism in multiferroic heterostructures.

The electric-voltage-modulated magnetism in multiferroic heterostructures, also known as the converse magnetoelectric (ME) coupling, has drawn increasing research interest recently owing to its great potential applications in future low-power, high-speed electronic and/or spintronic devices, such as magnetic memory and computer logic. In this article, based on combined theoretical analysis and experimental demonstration, we investigate the film size dependence of such converse ME coupling in multiferroic magnetic/ferroelectric heterostructures, as well as exploring the interaction between two relating coupling mechanisms that are the interfacial strain and possibly the charge effects. We also briefly discuss some issues for the next step and describe new device prototypes that can be enabled by this technology.

Enhanced thermoelectric properties of Pb-doped BiCuSeO ceramics.

A high-performance thermoelectric oxyselenide BiCuSeO ceramic with ZT > 1.1 at 823 K and higher average ZT value (ZTave ≈0.8) is obtained. The heavy doping element and nanostructures can effectively tune its electronic structure, hole concentration, and thermal conductivity, resulting in substantially enhanced mobility, power factor, and thus ZT value. This work provides a path to high-performance thermoelectric ceramics.