ABSTRACT
Electrically switchable magnetization is considered a milestone in the development of ultralow power spintronic devices, and it has been a long sought-after goal for electric-field control of magnetoresistance in magnetic tunnel junctions with ultralow power consumption. Here, through integrating spintronics and multiferroics, we investigate MgO-based magnetic tunnel junctions on ferroelectric substrate with a high tunnel magnetoresistance ratio of 235%. A giant, reversible and nonvolatile electric-field manipulation of magnetoresistance to about 55% is realized at room temperature without the assistance of a magnetic field. Through strain-mediated magnetoelectric coupling, the electric field modifies the magnetic anisotropy of the free layer leading to its magnetization rotation so that the relative magnetization configuration of the magnetic tunnel junction can be efficiently modulated. Our findings offer significant fundamental insight into information storage using electric writing and magnetic reading and represent a crucial step towards low-power spintronic devices.
ABSTRACT
Electric-field control of magnetism in ferromagnetic/ferroelectric multiferroic heterostructures is a promising way to realize fast and nonvolatile random-access memory with high density and low-power consumption. An important issue that has not been solved is the magnetic responses to different types of ferroelectric-domain switching. Here, for the first time three types of magnetic responses are reported induced by different types of ferroelectric domain switching with in situ electric fields in the CoFeB mesoscopic discs grown on PMN-PT(001), including type I and type II attributed to 109°, 71°/180° ferroelectric domain switching, respectively, and type III attributed to a combined behavior of multiferroelectric domain switching. Rotation of the magnetic easy axis by 90° induced by 109° ferroelectric domain switching is also found. In addition, the unique variations of effective magnetic anisotropy field with electric field are explained by the different ferroelectric domain switching paths. The spatially resolved study of electric-field control of magnetism on the mesoscale not only enhances the understanding of the distinct magnetic responses to different ferroelectric domain switching and sheds light on the path of ferroelectric domain switching, but is also important for the realization of low-power consumption and high-speed magnetic random-access memory utilizing these materials.
