Room-temperature co-regulation of resistive and magnetic states in Fe3O4/PZT/ZCO multiferroic heterostructure with diluted magnetic semiconductor

Abstract

A novel multiferroic heterostructure composed of Fe3O4/PbZr0.2Ti0.8O3(PZT)/Zn0.95Co0.05O(ZCO) is prepared on the Pt(111)-Ti-SiO2-Si substrate in this work to achieve the synchronous electric regulation on magnetic and resistive states at room temperature. When the polarization direction of the PZT layer is reversed with the write voltage, the depletion or accumulation of oxygen vacancies is formed at the PZT/ZCO interface, exhibiting the resistance switching between high and low resistive states with a ratio up to 1.19 × 104. Meanwhile, based on the interfacial charge effect and bound magnetopolaron (BMP) theory, magnetic modulation with a magnetoelectric (ME) coupling coefficient up to 133.2 Oe/V is realized at room temperature. More interestingly, by measuring the magnetoresistance, four distinct resistance states are displayed in this multiferroic structure with the ferroelectric reversal. Our results show that the multiferroic system containing both ferromagnetic and diluted magnetic semiconductor can simultaneously realize magnetoelectric coupling and resistance switching at room temperature. The magnetic signal can also be converted into an electrical signal based on the magnetoresistance effect.