Reconfigurable Magnetoresistive Sensor Based on Magnetoelectric Coupling

Abstract

AbstractMeasurement of magnetic signal from an arbitrary direction is of vital importance for applications in magnetic navigation, space science, indoor positioning, and magnetic gesture recognition. However, magnetoresistive sensors, as vector magnetometers, are only suitable for detection of magnetic signals along the magnetic hard axis. Magnetoelectric coupling is introduced to control the magnetic anisotropy of a magnetoresistive pattern, realizing a 90° rotation of the magnetic hard axis and thus the sensing direction of the tunable sensor. The sensitivity along the initial magnetic easy axis can be enhanced 12.7‐fold while that along the initial hard axis can be depressed to be only 4.7% of the original value through magnetic anisotropy engineering. The tailorable directional sensitivity of the electric‐field reconfigurable sensor speaks to the strong potential of this system for practical applications requiring testing of localized magnetic fields, for example, magnetic diagnosis or biomagnetic characterization.