Roughness-insensitive and electrically controllable magnetization at the (0001) surface of antiferromagnetic chromia is observed using magnetometry and spin-resolved photoemission measurements and explained by the interplay of surface termination and magnetic ordering. Further, this surface in placed in proximity with a ferromagnetic Co/Pd multilayer film. Exchange coupling across the interface between chromia and Co/Pd induces an electrically controllable exchange bias in the Co/Pd film, which enables a reversible isothermal (at room temperature) shift of the global magnetic hysteresis loop of the Co/Pd film along the magnetic field axis between negative and positive values. These results reveal the potential of magnetoelectric chromia for spintronic applications requiring non-volatile electric control of magnetization.
@article{arxiv.1004.3763,
title = {Robust isothermal electric switching of interface magnetization: A route to voltage-controlled spintronics},
author = {Xi He and Yi Wang and Ning Wu and Anthony Caruso and Elio Vescovo and K. D. Belashchenko and Peter A. Dowben and Christian Binek},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1004.3763},
year = {2010}
}
Comments
Single PDF file: 27 pages, 6 figures; version of 12/30/09; submitted to Nature Materials