Electric Field Control of Magnetic Properties in Multiferroic Heterostructures

Recently, the use of an electric field (E-field) to control the magnetic properties of thin magnetic films has drawn intensive interest due to their important potential applications such as magnetoelectric random access memory (MERAM) devices and magnetoelectric (ME) sensor. In this thesis, the work first includes a study of the strain-mediated ME coupling strength manipulation by either changing ferromagnetic layer thickness (30-100 nm) or inserting a thin Ti buffer layer (0-10 nm). A large remanence ratio (Mr/Ms) tunability of 95% has been demonstrated in the 65 nm CoFe/PMN-PT heterostructure, corresponding to a giant ME constant (α) of 2.5 × 10-6 s/m, when an external E-field of 9 kV/cm was applied. Also, a record high remanence ratio (Mr/Ms) tunability of 100% has been demonstrated in the 50 nm CoFe/8 nm Ti/PMN-PT heterostructure, corresponding to a large ME constant α of 2.1 × 10-6 s/m, when the E-field of 16 kV/cm was applied. Furthermore, the E-field induced magnetic response was repeatable and quick even after 30 repeats were made. Secondly, a study of non-volatile magnetization change has been demonstrated in the 65 nm CoFe/24 nm Metglas/PMN-PT. In this heterostructure, the E-field created two new non-volatile remanence states, although the as-grown magnetic anisotropy was altered permanently, when the E-field between -6 kV/cm to +6 kV/cm was applied. Based on giant magnetoresistance (GMR) or anisotropic magnetoresistance (AMR), the MERAM memory cell was proposed for the fast, low-power and high-density information storage.