Giant electrical modulation of magnetization in Co40Fe40B20/Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)0.7Ti0.3O3(011) heterostructure

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 4; no. 1; p. 3727
• Main Authors: Zhang, Sen, Zhao, Yonggang, Xiao, Xia, Wu, Yizheng, Rizwan, Syed, Yang, Lifeng, Li, Peisen, Wang, Jiawei, Zhu, Meihong, Zhang, Huiyun, Jin, Xiaofeng, Han, Xiufeng
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 16.01.2014; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 639/301/119/996; 639/301/119/997; Anisotropy; Electric fields; Humanities and Social Sciences; Lead; Magnetic fields; multidisciplinary; Polarization; Science; Temperature effects
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/srep03727

We report a giant electric-field control of magnetization ( M ) as well as magnetic anisotropy in a Co 40 Fe 40 B 20 (CoFeB)/Pb(Mg 1/3 Nb 2/3 ) 0.7 Ti 0.3 O 3 (PMN-PT) structure at room temperature, in which a maximum relative magnetization change (Δ M / M ) up to 83% with a 90° rotation of the easy axis under electric fields were observed by different magnetic measurement systems with in-situ electric fields. The mechanism for this giant magnetoelectric (ME) coupling can be understood as the combination of the ultra-high value of anisotropic in-plane piezoelectric coefficients of (011)-cut PMN-PT due to ferroelectric polarization reorientation and the perfect soft ferromagnetism without magnetocrystalline anisotropy of CoFeB film. Besides the giant electric-field control of magnetization and magnetic anisotropy, this work has also demonstrated the feasibility of reversible and deterministic magnetization reversal controlled by pulsed electric fields with the assistance of a weak magnetic field, which is important for realizing strain-mediated magnetoelectric random access memories.