Electrically enhanced magnetization in highly strained BiFeO3 films

Yang, Jan-Chi; Kuo, Chang-Yang; Liu, Heng-Jui; Ding, Hang-Chen; Duan, Chun-Gang; Lin, Hong-Ji; Hu, Zhiwei; Pi, Tun-Wen; Tjeng, Liu Hao; Chen, Chien-Te; Arenholz, Elke; He, Qing; Chu, Ying-Hao

Abstract

The control of magnetism via an electric field has attracted substantial attention because of potential applications in magnetoelectronics, spintronics and high-frequency devices. In this study, we demonstrate a new approach to enhance and control the magnetization of multiferroic thin film by an electric stimulus. First, to reduce the strength of the antiferromagnetic superexchange interaction in BiFeO3, we applied strain engineering to stabilize a highly strained phase. Second, the direction of the ferroelectric polarization was controlled by an electric field to enhance the Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction in the highly strained BiFeO3 phase. Because of the magnetoelectric coupling in BiFeO3, a strong correlation between the modulated ferroelectricity and enhanced magnetization was observed. The tunability of this strong correlation by an electric field provides an intriguing route to control ferromagnetism in a single-phase multiferroic.

Citation

Yang, J., Kuo, C., Liu, H., Ding, H., Duan, C., Lin, H., …Chu, Y. (2016). Electrically enhanced magnetization in highly strained BiFeO3 films. NPG Asia Materials, 8(5), Article e269. https://doi.org/10.1038/am.2016.55

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Mar 1, 2016
• Online Publication Date: May 20, 2016
• Publication Date: May 20, 2016
• Deposit Date: Dec 5, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: Dec 9, 2016
• Journal: NPG Asia Materials
• Publisher: Springer Nature
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 8
• Issue: 5
• Article Number: e269
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/am.2016.55
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1399012