Electric-Field Control of Magnetization and Electronic Transport in Ferromagnetic/Ferroelectric Heterostructures

This book mainly focuses on the investigation of the electric-field control of magnetism and spin-dependent transportation based on a Co40Fe40B20(CoFeB)/Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)0.7Ti0.3O3(PMN-PT) multiferroic heterostructure. Methods of characterization and analysis of the multiferroic properties with in situ electric fields are induced to detect the direct magnetoelectric (ME) coupling. A switchable and non-volatile electric field control of magnetization in CoFeB/PMN-PT(001) structures is observed at room temperature, and the mechanism of direct coupling between the ferroelectric domain and ferromagnetic film due to the combined action of 109(deg) ferroelastic domain switching in PMN-PT and the absence of magnetocrystalline anisotropy in CoFeB is demonstrated. Moreover, the electric-field control of giant magnetoresistance is achieved in a CoFeB-based spin valve deposited on top of (011) oriented PMN-PT, which offers an avenue for implementing electric-writing and magnetic-reading random access memory at room temperature. Readers will learn the basic properties of multiferroic materials, many useful techniques related to characterizing multiferroics and the interesting ME effect in CoFeB/PMN-PT structures, which is significant for applications.