Peisen Li

Giant electrical modulation of magnetization in Co40Fe40B20/Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)0.7Ti0.3O3(011) heterostructure

We report a giant electric-field control of magnetization (M) as well as magnetic anisotropy in a Co40Fe40B20(CoFeB)/Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)0.7Ti0.3O3(PMN-PT) structure at room temperature, in which a maximum relative magnetization change (ΔM/M) up to 83% with a 90° rotation of the easy axis under electric fields were observed by different magnetic measurement systems with in-situ electric fields. The mechanism for this giant magnetoelectric (ME) coupling can be understood as the combination of the ultra-high value of anisotropic in-plane piezoelectric coefficients of (011)-cut PMN-PT due to ferroelectric polarization reorientation and the perfect soft ferromagnetism without magnetocrystalline anisotropy of CoFeB film. Besides the giant electric-field control of magnetization and magnetic anisotropy, this work has also demonstrated the feasibility of reversible and deterministic magnetization reversal controlled by pulsed electric fields with the assistance of a weak magnetic field, which is important for realizing strain-mediated magnetoelectric random access memories.

Electric Field Manipulation of Magnetization Rotation and Tunneling Magnetoresistance of Magnetic Tunnel Junctions at Room Temperature

Electric-field-controlled tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) of magnetic tunnel junctions is considered as the milestone of ultralow power spintronic devices. Here, reversible, continuous magnetization rotation and manipulation is reported for TMR at room temperature in CoFeB/AlOx/CoFeB/piezoelectric structure by electric fields without the assistance of a magnetic field through strain-mediated interaction. These results provide a new way of exploring electric-field-controlled spintronics.

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.

Angular Dependence of Exchange Bias and Magnetization Reversal Controlled by Electric‐Field‐Induced Competing Anisotropies

The combination of exchange-biased systems and ferroelectric materials offers a simple and effective way to investigate the angular dependence of exchange bias using one sample with electric-field-induced competing anisotropies. A reversible electric-field-controlled magnetization reversal at zero magnetic field is also realized through optimizing the anisotropy configuration, holding promising applications for ultralow power magnetoelectric devices.

Ferroelectric-domain-controlled magnetic anisotropy in Co40Fe40B20/YMnO3 multiferroic heterostructure

We report on the magnetic properties of Co40Fe40B20/YMnO3 multiferroic heterostructures in which Co40Fe40B20 shows an in-plane uniaxial magnetic anisotropy with the magnetic easy axis along the ferroelectric polarization direction of YMnO3. The coercive field (Hc) of Co40Fe40B20 shows an interesting non-monotonic change from the easy axis to hard axis with a maximum at a certain angle. It was demonstrated that the magnetic property of Co40Fe40B20 was dominated by the FE domain induced strain and the angular dependence of Hc can be understood by the two phase model. This work is helpful for understanding the coupling between ferromagnetic and ferroelectric materials.

Electric-Field Control of Magnetism in Co40Fe40B20/(1-x)Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-xPbTiO3 Multiferroic Heterostructures with Different Ferroelectric Phases

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.

Low-voltage magnetoresistance in silicon

Arising from C. H. Wan, X. Z. Zhang, X. L. Gao, J. M. Wang & X. Y. Tan 477, 304–307 (2011).10.1038/nature10375Magnetoresistance exhibited by non-magnetic semiconductors has attracted much attention. In particular, Wan et al. reported room-temperature magnetoresistance in silicon to reach 10% at 0.07 T and 150,000% at 7 T—“an intrinsically spatial effect”. Their supply voltage was approximately 10 V (ref. 12), which is low and approaches the industrial requirement. However, we have found their large magnetoresistance values to be experimental artefacts caused by their method of measurement. The true room-temperature magnetoresistance of the devices described in ref. 12 is low with a magnetic field of up to 7 T and a supply voltage of around 10 V and hence these devices cannot offer large magnetoresistance with low supply voltage to industry. There is a Reply to this Brief Communication Arising by Zhang, X. Z., Wan, C. H., Gao, X. L., Wang, J. M. & Tan, X. Y. Nature 501, http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature12590 (2013).

Spatially Resolved Ferroelectric Domain-Switching-Controlled Magnetism in Co40Fe40B20/Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)0.7Ti0.3O3 Multiferroic Heterostructure

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.

Investigation on the pyroelectric property of polycrystalline GdMnO3

Pyroelectric property of orthorhomic GdMnO3 polycrystalline samples was investigated. Two pyrocurrent peaks were observed with the sharp one near 20 K and the broad one at around 120 K. The dependences of these two peaks on magnetic field, heating rate, and poling voltage were explored systematically. The sharp peak is related to the ferroelectric transition, while the behavior of the broad one corresponds to dipole reorientation. Some key pyroelectric features are proposed to separate the spin-induced ferroelectricity from other effects. This work is helpful for understanding the pyroelectric property of multiferroic materials.

Strain-Mediated Coexistence of Volatile and Nonvolatile Converse Magnetoelectric Effects in Fe/Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)0.7Ti0.3O3 Heterostructure

Strain-mediated ferromagnetic/ferroelectric (FE) heterostructures have played an important role in multiferroic materials to investigate the electric-field control of magnetism in the past decade, due to their excellent performances, such as room-temperature operation and large magnetoelectric (ME) coupling effect. Because of the different FE-switching-originated strain behaviors and varied interfacial coupling effect, both loop-like (nonvolatile) and butterfly-like (volatile) converse ME effects have been reported. Here, we investigate the electric-field control of magnetism in a multiferroic heterostructure composed of a polycrystalline Fe thin film and a Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)0.7Ti0.3O3 single crystal, and the experimental results exhibit complex behaviors, suggesting the coexistence of volatile and nonvolatile converse ME effects. By separating the symmetrical and antisymmetrical parts of the electrical modulation of magnetization, we distinguished the loop-like hysteresis and butterfly-like magnetization changes tuned by electric fields, corresponding to the strain effects related to the FE 109° switching and 71/180° switching, respectively. Further magnetic-field-dependent as well as angular-dependent investigation of the converse ME effect confirmed the strain-mediated magnetism involving competition among the Zeeman energy, magnetocrystalline anisotropy energy, and strain-generated magnetoelastic energy. This study is helpful for understanding the electric-field control of magnetism in multiferroic heterostructures as well as its relevant applications.