Enhanced magnetoelectric coupling in a composite multiferroic system via interposing a thin film polymer

Zhuyun Xiao,Sarah H Tolbert,Roberto Lo Conte,C Ty Karaba,Andres Chavez,Hyunmin Sohn,Andreas Scholl,Rob N Candler,Jeffrey Bokor,J D Schneider,Kotekar P Mohanchandra,Mark E Nowakowski,Gregory P Carman,Sidhant Tiwari

doi:10.1063/1.5007655

Abstract

Enhancing the magnetoelectric coupling in a strain-mediated multiferroic composite structure plays a vital role in controlling magnetism by electric fields. An enhancement of magnetoelastic coupling between ferroelectric single crystal (011)-cut [Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3](1-x)-[PbTiO3]x (PMN-PT, x≈ 0.30) and ferromagnetic polycrystalline Ni thin film through an interposed benzocyclobutene polymer thin film is reported. A nearly twofold increase in sensitivity of remanent magnetization in the Ni thin film to an applied electric field is observed. This observation suggests a viable method of improving the magnetoelectric response in these composite multiferroic systems.

Highlights

Multiferroics exhibiting both ferromagnetic (FM) and ferroelectric (FE) properties have attracted substantial interest owing to the strong magnetoelectric (ME) coupling behavior between these two ferroic orders
Compared to single-phase multiferroics, composite multiferroic heterostructures are important for their larger ME coupling effect, where coupling has been demonstrated via several methods, including elastic strain, exchange bias effect, and charge carrier density - all controllable by electric field
Optimizing the transfer of strain and magnetic response in strain-coupled multiferroic heterostructures is key to maximizing the Villari effect, which is at the core of applications such as magnetic random access memory (MRAM), field sensors, and actuators

Summary

Introduction

Multiferroics exhibiting both ferromagnetic (FM) and ferroelectric (FE) properties have attracted substantial interest owing to the strong magnetoelectric (ME) coupling behavior between these two ferroic orders. Single-phase multiferroics have relatively low magnetoelectric coupling coefficients due to the reciprocity relations that limit magnetoelectric susceptibilities.. Compared to single-phase multiferroics, composite multiferroic heterostructures are important for their larger ME coupling effect, where coupling has been demonstrated via several methods, including elastic strain, exchange bias effect, and charge carrier density - all controllable by electric field.. The use of electrical field to actuate strain-coupled multiferroic heterostructures has been widely demonstrated in the past few years as an energy-efficient pathway for controlling magnetization in the FM layer.. Optimizing the transfer of strain and magnetic response in strain-coupled multiferroic heterostructures is key to maximizing the Villari effect, which is at the core of applications such as magnetic random access memory (MRAM), field sensors, and actuators.. Single-phase multiferroics have relatively low magnetoelectric coupling coefficients due to the reciprocity relations that limit magnetoelectric susceptibilities. Compared to single-phase multiferroics, composite multiferroic heterostructures are important for their larger ME coupling effect, where coupling has been demonstrated via several methods, including elastic strain, exchange bias effect, and charge carrier density - all controllable by electric field. Among these, the use of electrical field to actuate strain-coupled multiferroic heterostructures has been widely demonstrated in the past few years as an energy-efficient pathway for controlling magnetization in the FM layer.

Methods

Results

Conclusion