Magnetoelectric effect of epitaxial Cr2O3 thin films with a conducting underlayer electrode

Abstract

Magnetoelectric antiferromagnetic Cr2O3 is a promising candidate for antiferromagnetic spintronic applications to achieve electrical manipulation of the magnetic property, with the benefits of energy efficiency and a robustness to external disturbances. Recently it has been demonstrated that the underlayer electrode, required for the bias application, plays a key role in determining the magnetoelectric property of the Cr2O3 film. Here, for the first time, we epitaxially grow Cr2O3 thin films on the conducting Nb:SrTiO3 substrate, which is also used as the bottom electrode. To demonstrate the magnetoelectric effect, the perpendicular magnetized (Co/Ni)n multilayer is grown with an optimized Pt spacer layer. With the designed structure, we successfully demonstrate antiferromagnetic switching with magnetoelectric field cooling processes via the anomalous Hall effect measurement.