Room-temperature giant magneto-mechanical-electric cross-coupling in Si-integrated PbZr0.52Ti0.48O3/Ni50Mn35In15 multiferroic heterostructures

Abstract

The current study reports the strong magnetoelectric coupling (M–E) in silicon (Si)-integrated ferromagnetic shape memory alloy-based PZT/Ni–Mn–In thin-film multiferroic heterostructure. The strain-mediated nature of converse M–E coupling is reflected from the butterfly-shaped normalized magnetization (M/Ms) versus electric field plots. The direct M–E properties of the heterostructure were measured with a frequency of AC magnetic field, bias magnetic field, as well as with temperature. A maximum direct M–E coupling in the bilayered thin-film multiferroic heterostructures occurred at resonance frequencies around the first-order structural transitional temperature of the bottom Ni–Mn–In layer. It was observed that the measuring temperature remarkably affects the direct M–E characteristic of the heterostructure. A large direct ME effect and converse ME effect coefficient αDME ~ 894 mV cm−1.Oe and αCME ~ 2.7 × 10−5 s m−1, respectively, were achieved in the bilayer at room temperature. The mechanism of direct as well as converse M–E effects in the thin-film multiferroic heterostructures is discussed. The electrically driven angular dependence of normalized magnetization (M/Ms) reveals the twofold symmetric magnetic anisotropy of the heterostructure, with the drastic shifting of the magnetic hard axis at E > Ec (coercivity of PZT).