We present a first-principles scheme for the computation of the magnetoelectric response of magnetic insulators. The method focuses on the lattice-mediated part of the magnetic response to an electric field, which we argue can be expected to be the dominant contribution in materials displaying a strong magnetoelectric coupling. We apply our method to Cr2O3, a relatively simple and experimentally well studied magnetoelectric compound.
We report the first magnetic-field-dependent Raman scattering studies on Pb(Zr,Ti)O3-CoFe2O4 bilayer multiferroic system. The phonon frequencies of the nano-bilayers obviously change with magnetic field, which is absent in the single Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 films. The magnetostriction of the CoFe2O4 layer generates stress mechanically transferred to the Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 layer, resulting in the mode changes. The observed magnetic-field-induced softening of the soft mode in the Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 layer bears a striking resemblance to direct magnetoelectric output in the bilayers, providing evidence for stress-mediated …
While tremendous success has been achieved to date in creating both single phase and composite magnetoelectric materials, the quintessential electric-field control of magnetism remains elusive. In this work, we demonstrate a linear magnetoelectric effect which arises from a novel carrier-mediated mechanism, and is a universal feature of the interface between a dielectric and a spin-polarized metal. Using first-principles density functional calculations, we illustrate this effect at the SrRuO$_3$/SrTiO$_3$ interface and describe its origin. To formally quantify the magnetic response of such an …
Magnetoelectric coupling terms are derived in piezoelectric/magnetostrictive (multiferroic) thin film heterostructures using Landau-Ginzburg free energy expansions in terms of strain and by considering strain boundary conditions between the two materials. Then, a general effective medium method for solving for the complete electromagnetic susceptibility tensor of such heterostructures is used to calculate the ferromagnetic resonance frequency in a BaTiO$_3$/NiFe$_2$O$_4$ superlattice. This method differs from existing methods for treating magnetoelectric heterostructures since the magnetic and…
Magnetoelectric (ME) effect has been studied in a structure of a magnetostrictive TbFe2 alloy, two piezoelectric Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 (PZT) ceramics, and two nonmagnetic flakes. The ME coupling originates from the magnetic-mechanical-electric transform of the magnetostrictive effect in TbFe2 and the piezoelectric effect in PZT by end bonding, instead of interface bonding. Large ME coefficients of 10.5 and 9.9 Vcm-1Oe-1 were obtained at the first planar acoustic and third bending resonance frequencies, which are larger than that of conventional layered TbFe2/PZT composites. The results show that the lar…
Magnetoelectric coupling between magnetic and electric dipoles is one of the cornerstones of modern physics towards developing the most energy-efficient magnetic data storage. Conventionally, magnetoelectric coupling is achieved in single-phase multiferroics or in magnetoelectric composite nanostructures consisting of ferromagnetic and ferroelectric/piezoelectric materials. Here, we demonstrate an electric-field-induced strain-mediated magnetoelectric effect in ultrathin CoFeB/MgO magnetic tunnel junction employing non-piezoelectric material, which is a vitally important structure for spintron…
We present a phenomenological scheme to study the size-dependent electric voltage-controlled magnetic anisotropy in ferromagnetic (FM)/ferroelectric (FE) heterostructures. The FM layers are either metallic Fe(001), Ni(001), Co(0001), or half-metallic (La, Sr)MnO3 films. Two magnetoelectric mechanisms, i.e., interface-charge and strain-mediated couplings, are considered. We show that the interface-charge mediated coupling is the main mechanism for the magnetoelectic coupling when the FM film thickness is below a certain transition thickness dtr while the strain-mediated coupling dominates above…
Magnetic axis rotation (MAR) in ferromagnetic (FM) layers is crucial for strain-mediated converse magnetoelectric coupling. Employing the density functional theory (DFT), we computationally study the magnetic anisotropy of selected deformed FM materials such as body-centered iron. The results show that the short axis is more energy-favorable at high in-plane strain difference than previously predicted phenomenologically. This anomalous trend and the complex energy behaviors at different strain conditions explain why spin-lattice dynamics (SLD) simulation does not produce in-plane MAR and imply…
We demonstrate that the electronic contribution to the linear magnetoelectric response, usually omitted in first-principles studies, can be comparable in magnitude to that mediated by lattice distortions, even for materials in which responses are strong. Using a self-consistent Zeeman response to an applied magnetic field for noncollinear electron spins, we show how electric polarization emerges in linear magnetoelectrics through both electronic- and lattice-mediated components -- in analogy with the high- and low-frequency dielectric response to an electric field. The approach we use is conce…
Electric-field control of magnetism without electric currents potentially revolutionizes spintronics towards ultralow power. Here by using mechanically coupled phase field simulations, we computationally demonstrate the application of the strain-mediated magnetoelectric effect for the electric-field control of magnetic states in heterostructure. In the model heterostructure constituted of the soft nanomagnet Co and the piezoelectric substrate PMN-PT, both the volatility of magnetic states and the magnetization switching dynamics excited by the electric field are explored. It is found that an e…
Development and Application of a Magnetoelectric Coupling Measurement System for Strain-Mediated Effects
UGC-DAE Consortium for Scientific Research（UGC-DAE 科学研究联盟）；Maharaja Institute of Technology Mysore（迈索尔 Maharaja 理工学院）；Institute of Sciences, SAGE University（SAGE 大学理学院）；Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology（Raja Ramanna 先进技术中心）
We show that the presence of free carriers in a substance can generate the multiferroic behavior. Namely, if the substance has mixed-valence ions, which can supply free carriers and have electric dipole and spin moments, all three types of long-range order (ferromagnetic, ferroelectric and magnetoelectric (ME)) can occur at low temperature. The physical origin of the effect is that charge carriers can mediate the multiferroic behavior via spin - spin (RKKY), dipole-dipole and dipole - spin interactions. Our estimate of the interaction magnitude shows that there exist an optimal carrier concent…
The self-polarization of PbZr0.52Ti0.48O3 thin film is switched by changing film thickness through the competition between the strain relaxation-induced flexoelectric fields and the interfacial effects. Without an applied electric field, this reversal of self-polarization is exploited to control the magnetic properties of La0.67Sr0.33MnO3 by the competition/cooperation between the charge-mediated and the strain-mediated effects. Scanning transmission electron microscopy, polarized near edge x-ray absorption spectroscopy, and half-integer diffraction measurements are employed to decode this int…
The search for materials displaying a large magnetoelectric effect has occupied researchers for many decades. The rewards could include not only advanced electronics technologies, but also fundamental insights concerning the dielectric and magnetic properties of condensed matter. In this article, we focus on the magnetoelectric effect in transition metal oxides and review the manner in which first-principles calculations have helped guide the search for (and increasingly, predicted) new materials and shed light on the microscopic mechanisms responsible for magnetoelectric phenomena.
The linear magnetoelectric response of Cr2O3 at zero temperature is calculated from first principles by tracking the change in magnetization under a macroscopic electric field. Both the spin and the orbital contributions to the induced magnetization are computed, and in each case the response is decomposed into lattice and electronic parts. We find that the transverse response is dominated by the spin-lattice and spin-electronic contributions, whose calculated values are consistent with static and optical magnetoelectric measurements. In the case of the longitudinal response, orbital contribut…
We introduce the notion of inverse effect of magnetostriction for magnetostrictive/piezoelectric heterostructures and study this effect theoretically and experimentally. It is shown that the inverse effect of magnetostriction may crucially contribute to the mechanism of magnetoelectric coupling. It is shown that the studied effect essentially modifies the saturation magnetostriction of the whole structure as compared to its magnetic phase bulk and also induces an additional magnetic anisotropy. Our consideration provides useful insight into the fundamental issue of strain-mediated magnetoelect…
The direct magnetoelectric (ME) effect mediated by lattice strains induced in a ferroelectric film by a ferromagnetic substrate is evaluated using first-principles-based calculations. To that end, the strain sensitivity of ferroelectric polarization and the film permittivity are calculated as a function of the in-plane biaxial strain for Pb(Zr0.52Ti0.48)O3 films under various depolarizing fields. It is found that the ME voltage coefficient varies nonmonotonically with this strain and may reach giant values exceeding 100 Vcm-1 Oe-1 over a strain range that can be controlled through the electric…
We present a formalism to calculate the macroscopic magnetoelectric monopolization from first principles within the density functional theory framework. An expression for the monopolization in the case of insulating collinear magnetism is derived first in terms of spin-polarized Wannier functions then recast as a Berry phase. We propose an extension to the general, non-collinear case which we implement computationally in the Wannier function form and use to calculate the magnetoelectric monopolizations of LiMnPO$_4$ and Cr$_2$O$_3$. We find that, while the former is well approximated by a summ…
Magnetoelectric interactions in bilayers of magnetostrictive and piezoelectric phases are mediated by mechanical deformation. Here we discuss the theory and companion data for magnetoelectric (ME) coupling at electromechanical resonance (EMR) in a ferrite-lead zirconate titanate (PZT) bilayer. Estimated ME voltage coefficient versus frequency profiles for nickel, cobalt, or lithium ferrite and PZT reveal a giant ME effect at EMR with the highest coupling expected for cobalt ferrite-PZT. Measurements of resonance ME coupling have been carried out on layered and bulk composites of nickel ferrite…
The exchange-driven contribution to the magnetoelectric susceptibility $\hatα$ is formulated using a microscopic model Hamiltonian coupling the spin degrees of freedom to lattice displacements and electric field, which may be constructed from first-principles data. Electronic and ionic contributions are sorted out, and the latter is resolved into a sum of contributions from different normal modes. If intrasublattice spin correlations can be neglected, the longitudinal component $α_\parallel$ becomes proportional to the product of magnetic susceptibility and sublattice magnetization in accordan…
The magnetoelectric effects in multiferroics have a great potential in creating next-generation memory devices. We conceive a new concept of non-volatile memories based on a type of nonlinear magnetoelectric effects showing a butterfly-shaped hysteresis loop. The principle is to utilize the states of the magnetoelectric coefficient, instead of magnetization, electric polarization or resistance, to store binary information. Our experiments in a device made of the PMN-PT/Terfenol-D multiferroic heterostructure clearly demonstrate that the sign of the magnetoelectric coefficient can be repeatedly…
We show that inducing structural softness in regular magnetoelectric (ME) multiferroics -- i.e., tuning the materials to make their structure strongly reactive to applied fields -- makes it possible to obtain very large ME effects. We present illustrative first-principles results for BiFeO3 thin films.
Materials that combine magnetic and ferroelectric properties have generated increasing interest over the last few years, due to both their diverse properties and their potential utility in new types of magnetoelectric device applications. In this review we discuss recent progress in the study of such magnetoelectric multiferroics which has been achieved using computational first-principles methods based on density functional theory. In particular, we show how first-principles methods have been successfully used to explain various properties of multiferroic materials and to predict novel effect…
Electrical control of magnetization or magnetic control of polarization offers an extra degree of freedom in materials possessing both electric and magnetic dipole moments viz., magnetoelectric multiferroics. Microstructure with polycrystalline configurations that enhances the overall polarization/magnetization and that outperform single crystalline configurations are identified. The characterization of local fields corresponding to the polycrystal configuration underlines nontrivial role played by randomness in better cross-coupling mediated by anisotropic and asymmetric strains.
Magnetoelectric (ME) materials are of fundamental interest and show broad potential for technological applications. Commonly the dominant contribution to the ME response is the lattice-mediated one, which is proportional to both the Born electric charge $Z^{\rm e}$ and its analogue, the dynamical magnetic charge $Z^{\rm m}$. Our previous study has shown that exchange striction acting on noncollinear spins induces much larger magnetic charges than those that depend on spin-orbit coupling. The hexagonal manganites $R$MnO$_3$ and ferrites $R$FeO$_3$ ($R$ = Sc, Y, In, Ho-Lu) exhibit strong couplin…
We report coupling between magnetic and electric orders for antiferromagnetic polycrystalline FeVO4 in which magnetism-induced polarization has been recently found in noncollinear antiferromagnetic state below the second antiferromagnetic phase transition at TN2=15.7K. In this low symmetry phase space group P-1, the magnetic field dependence of electric polarization evidences a clear magnetoelectric coupling in the noncollinear spin-configured antiferromagnetic phase. The discontinuity of magnetodielectric effect observed at the vicinity of the polar to nonpolar transition evidences competitio…
Magnetoelectric (ME) materials are of fundamental interest and have been investigated for their broad potential for technological applications. The search for, and eventually the theoretical design of, materials with large ME couplings present challenging issues. First-principles methods have only recently been developed to calculate the full ME response tensor $α$ including both electronic and ionic (i.e., lattice-mediated) contributions. The latter is proportional to both the Born dynamical electric charge $Z^{\rm e}$ and its analogue, the dynamical magnetic charge $Z^{\rm m}$. Here we prese…
Mechanical strain mediated magnetoelectric effects are studied in bilayers and trilayers of piezoelectric quartz and magnetostrictive permendur (P), an alloy of Fe-Co-V. It is shown that the magneto-electric voltage coefficient (MEVC), proportional to the ratio of the piezoelectric coupling coefficient to the permittivity, is higher in quart-based composites than for traditional ferroelectrics based ME composites. In bilayers of X-cut single crystal quartz and permendur, the MEVC varies from 1.5 V/cm Oe at 20 Hz to ~ 185 V/cm Oe at bending resonance or electromechanical resonance corresponding…
We use symmetry analysis to show that the G, C and A-type antiferromagnetic Pnma perovskites can exhibit magnetoelectric (ME) responses when a ferroelectric instability is induced with epitaxial strain. Using first-principles calculations we compute the values of the allowed ME response in strained CaMnO3 as a model system. Our results show that large linear and non-linear ME responses are present and can diverge when close to the ferroelectric phase transition. By decomposing the electronic and ionic contributions, we explore the detailed mechanism of the ME response.
We present a first-principles scheme for computing the magnetoelectric response of multiferroics. We apply our method to BiFeO3 (BFO) and related compounds in which Fe is substituted by other magnetic species. We show that under certain relevant conditions -- i.e., in absence of incommensurate spin modulation, as in BFO thin films and some BFO-based solid solutions -- these materials display a large linear magnetoelectric response. Our calculations reveal the atomistic origin of the coupling and allow us to identify the most promising strategies to enhance it.
Although several multiferroic materials/heterostructures have been extensively studied, finding strong magnetoelectric couplings for the electric field control of the magnetization remains challenging. Here, a novel interfacial magnetoelectric coupling based on three components (ferroelectric dipole, magnetic moment, and antiferromagnetic order) is analytically formulated. As an extension of carrier-mediated magnetoelectricity, the new coupling is shown to induce an electric-magnetic hysteresis loop. Realizations employing BiFeO$_3$ bilayers grown along the [$111$] axis are proposed. Without i…
Multiferroics are materials where two or more ferroic orders coexist owing to the interplay between spin, charge, lattice and orbital degrees of freedom. The explosive expansion of multiferroics literature in recent years demon-strates the fast growing interest in this field. In these studies, the first-principles calculation has played a pioneer role in the experiment explanation, mechanism discovery and prediction of novel multiferroics or magnetoelectric materials. In this review, we discuss, by no means comprehensively, the extensive applications and successful achievements of first-princi…
We study the magnetoelectric and electrocaloric response of strain-engineered, multiferroic SrMnO$_3$, using a phenomenological Landau theory with all parameters obtained from \emph{first-principles}-based calculations. This allows to make realistic and materials-specific predictions about the magnitude of the corresponding effects. We find that in the vicinity of a tetracritical point, where magnetic and ferroelectric phase boundaries intersect, an electric field has a huge effect on the antiferromagnetic order, corresponding to a magnetoelectric response several orders of magnitude larger th…
An unexplored physical mechanism which produces a magnetoelectric effect in ferroelectric/ferromagnetic multilayers is studied based on first-principles calculations. Its origin is a change in bonding at the ferroelectric/ferromagnet interface that alters the interface magnetization when the electric polarization reverses. Using Fe/BaTiO3 multilayers as a representative model we show a sizable difference in magnetic moments of Fe and Ti atoms at the two interfaces dissimilar by the orientation of the local electric dipole moment. The predicted magnetoelectric effect is comparable in magnitude …
The quantitative understanding of converse magnetoelectric effects, i.e., the variation of the magnetization as a function of an applied electric field, in extrinsic multiferroic hybrids is a key prerequisite for the development of future spintronic devices. We present a detailed study of the strain-mediated converse magnetoelectric effect in ferrimagnetic Fe3O4 thin films on ferroelectric BaTiO3 substrates at room temperature. The experimental results are in excellent agreement with numerical simulation based on a two-region model. This demonstrates that the electric field induced changes of …
Magnetoelectric composites are an important class of multiferroic materials that pave the way towards a new generation of multifunctional devices directly integrable in data storage technology and spintronics. This study focuses on strain-mediated electrical manipulation of magnetization in an extrinsic multiferroic. The composite includes 5 nm or 60 nm Fe$_{81}$Ga$_{19}$ thin films coupled to a piezoelectric (011)-PMN-PZT. The magnetization reversal study reveals a converse magnetoelectric coefficient $α_\mathrm{CME,max} \approx 2.7 \times {10^{-6}}$ s.m$^{-1}$ at room temperature. This repor…
Using first-principles density functional theory, we investigate the interfacial magnetoelectric coupling in a tri-component superlattice composed of a ferromagnetic metal (FM), ferroelectric (FE), and normal metal (NM). Using Fe/FE/Pt as a model system, we show that a net and cumulative interfacial magnetization is induced in the FM metal near the FM/FE interface. A carefully analysis of the magnetic moments in Fe reveals that the interfacial magnetization is a consequence of a complex interplay of interfacial charge transfer, chemical bonding, and spin dependent electrostatic screening. The …
Large magnetoelectric response in thin films is highly desired for high-throughput and high-density microelectronic applications. However, the d0 rule in single-phase compounds usually results in a weak interaction between ferroelectric and magnetic orders; the magnetoelectric coupling via elastic resonance in composites restricts their thin-film integration in broadband. Here, we effectuate a concurrence of ferroelectric-like and antiferromagnetic phase transitions in Sr2IrO4/SrTiO3 superlattices by artificial design periodically non-equivalent interfaces, where a maximum magnetoelectric coef…
We report a theoretical study of the non-linear magnetoelectric response of GdFeO$_3$ through an analytical approach combined with a Heisenberg model which is fitted against first-principles calculations. Our theory reproduces the non-linear change of polarization under applied magnetic field reported experimentally such that it allows to analyze the origin of the large responses in the different directions. We show that the non-linear character of the response in these materials originates from the fact that the antiferromagnetic order of Gd atoms changes non-linearly with respect to the appl…
This paper reports the development of a methodology combining microstrip ferromagnetic resonance (MS-FMR) and digital image correlation (DIC) in order to silmuteanously measure the voltage-induced strains and the magnetic resonance in artificial magnetoelectric heterostructures (magnetic films/piezoelectric substrate? or magnetic films/flexible substrate/piezoelectric actuator ?). The overall principle of the technique and the related analytical modelling are described. It is powerful to estimate the magnetostriction coefficient of ferromagnetic thin films and can be used to determine the effe…
We demonstrate computationally the existence of magnetoelectric multipoles, arising from the second order term in the multipole expansion of a magnetization density in a magnetic field, in noncentrosymmetric magnetic metals. While magnetoelectric multipoles have long been discussed in the context of the magnetoelectric effect in noncentrosymmetric magnetic insulators, they have not previosuly been identified in metallic systems, in which the mobile carriers screen any electrical polarization. Using first-principles density functional calculations we explore three specific systems: First, a con…
GaFeO3, AlFeO3 and related oxides are ferrimagnetic exhibiting magnetodielectric effect. There has been no evidence to date for ferroelectricity and hence multiferroicity in these oxides. We have investigated these oxides as well as oxides of the composition Al1-x-yGaxFe1+yO3 (x = 0.2, y = 0.2) for possible ferroelectricity by carrying out pyroelectric measurements. These measurements establish the occurrence of ferroelectricity at low temperatures below the Nèel temperature in these oxides. They also exhibit significant magnetoelectric effect. We have tried to understand the origin of ferroel…
We demonstrate room temperature ferroelectricity in the epitaxial thin films of magnetoelectric GaFeO3. Piezo-force measurements show a 180o phase shift of piezoresponse upon switching the electric field indicating nanoscale ferroelectricity in epitaxial thin films of gallium ferrite. Further, temperature dependent impedance analysis with and without the presence of an external magnetic field clearly reveals a pronounced magneto-dielectric effect across the magnetic transition temperature. In addition, our first principles calculations show that Fe ions are not only responsible for ferrimagnet…
We discuss the second-order magnetoelectric effect, in which a quadratic or bilinear electric field induces a linear magnetization, in terms of the ferroic ordering of magnetic octupoles. We present the decomposition of a general rank-3 tensor into its irreducible spherical tensors, then reduce the decomposition to the specific case of the magnetic octupole tensor, $\mathcal{M}_{ijk} = \int μ_i (\mathbf{r}) r_j r_k d^3 \mathbf{r}$. We use first-principles density functional theory to compute the size of the local magnetic multipoles on the chromium ions in the prototypical magnetoelectric Cr$_…
We report magnetization measurements and magnetic resonance data for SrTiO3 doped by manganese. We show that the recently reported coexistent spin and dipole glass (multiglass) behaviours are strongly affected by the distribution of Mn ions between the Sr and Ti sites. Motivated by this finding we calculate the magnetic interactions between Mn impurities of different kinds. Both LSDA+U and many-body perturbation theory evidence that magnetic and magnetoelectric interactions are mediated by Mn$_B^{4+}$ ions substituting for Ti. We propose two microscopic magnetoelectric coupling mechanisms, whi…
We use symmetry analysis and first principles calculations to show that the linear magnetoelectric effect can originate from the response of orbital magnetic moments to the polar distortions induced by an applied electric field. Using LiFePO4 as a model compound we show that spin-orbit coupling partially lifts the quenching of the 3d orbitals and causes small orbital magnetic moments ($μ_{(L)}\approx 0.3 μ_B$) parallel to the spins of the Fe$^{2+}$ ions. An applied electric field $\mathbf{E}$ modifies the size of these orbital magnetic moments inducing a net magnetization linear in $\mathbf{E}…
Magnetoelectric effect is a fundamental physics phenomenon that synergizes electric and magnetic degrees of freedom to generate distinct material responses like electrically tuned magnetism, which serves as a key foundation of the emerging field of spintronics. Here, we show by first-principles studies that ferroelectric (FE) polarization of an In2Se3 monolayer can modulate the magnetism of an adjacent transition-metal (TM) decorated graphene layer via an FE induced electronic transition. The TM nonbonding d-orbital shifts downward and hybridizes with carbon p states near the Fermi level, supp…
Discovering materials that display a linear magnetoelectric effect at room temperature is challenge. Such materials could facilitate novel devices based on the electric-field control of magnetism. Here we present simple, chemically intuitive design rules to identify a new class of bulk magnetoelectric materials based on the 'bicolor' layering of $Pnma$ ferrite perovskites, e.g., LaFeO$_3$/ LnFeO$_3$ superlattices for which Ln = lanthanide cation. We use first-principles density-functional theory calculations to confirm these ideas. Additionally, we elucidate the origin of this effect and show …
Clear anomalies in the lattice thermal expansion (deviation from linear variation) and elastic properties (softening of the sound velocity) at the antiferromagnetic-to-paramagnetic transition are observed in the prototypical multiferroic BiFeO3 using a combination of picosecond acoustic pump-probe and high-temperature X-ray diffraction experiments. Similar anomalies are also evidenced using first-principles calculations supporting our experimental findings. Those calculations in addition to a simple Landau-like model we also developed allow to understand the elastic softening and lattice chang…
Ferroic magnetic quadrupole order exhibiting macroscopic magnetoelectric activity is discovered in the novel compound $A$(TiO)Cu$_4$(PO$_4$)$_4$ with $A$ = Pb, which is in contrast with antiferroic quadrupole order observed in the isostructural compounds with $A$ = Ba and Sr. Unlike the famous lone-pair stereochemical activity which often triggers ferroelectricity as in PbTiO$_3$, the Pb$^{2+}$ cation in Pb(TiO)Cu$_4$(PO$_4$)$_4$ is stereochemically inactive but dramatically alters specific magnetic interactions and consequently switches the quadrupole order from antiferroic to ferroic. Our fi…
Magnetic skyrmions, vortex-like swirling spin textures characterized by a quantized topological invariant, realized in chiral-lattice magnets are currently attracting intense research interest. In particular, their dynamics under external fields is an issue of vital importance both for fundamental science and for technical application. Whereas observations of magnetic skyrmions had been limited to metallic magnets so far, their realization was discovered also in a chiral-lattice insulating magnet Cu2OSeO3 in 2012. Skyrmions in the insulator turned out to exhibit multiferroic nature with spin-i…
Ferromagnetic-ferroelectric nanocomposites are of interest for realizing strong strain mediated coupling between electric and magnetic subsystems due to high surface area-to-volume ratio. This report is on the synthesis of nickel ferrite (NFO) -barium titanate (BTO) core-shell nano-fibers, magnetic field assisted assembly into superstructures, and studies on magneto-electric (ME) interactions. Electrospinning techniques were used to prepare coaxial fibers of 0.5-1.5 micron in diameter. The core-shell structure of annealed fibers was confirmed by electron microscopy and scanning probe microscop…
On the basis of first-principles calculations we study the effect of interfacial Cr on the magnetoelectric properties of a composite multiferroic Fe_L/BaTiO_3(001), with the Fe thickness L=1,2 monolayers. The use of the CrO_2-terminated interface instead of TiO_2 may significantly enhance magnetoelectricity in the system, showing an unexpected change in magnetization induced by the electric polarization reversal. In the case of L=2, for instance, the magnetic order of the Fe bilayer can be switched from nearly zero ferrimagnetic to ferromagnetic upon polarization reversal.
The control of magnetization via the application of an electric field, known as magnetoelectric coupling, is among the most fascinating and active research areas today. In addition to fundamental scientific interest, magnetoelectric effects may lead to new device concepts for data storage and processing. There are several known mechanisms for magnetoelectric coupling that include intrinsic effects in single-phase materials, strain induced coupling in two-phase composites, and electronically-driven effects at interfaces. Here we explore a different type of magnetoelectric effect at a ferromagne…
Converse magnetoelectric coupling in artificial multiferroics is generally modelled through three possible mechanisms: charge transfer, strain mediated or ion migration. Here we demonstrate a novel and highly reliable approach, where electrically controlled morphological modifications control the ferromagnetic response of a magnetoelectric heterostructure, specifically FexMn1-x ferromagnetic films on ferroelectric PMN-PT (001) substrates. The ferroelectric PMN-PT substrates present, in correspondence to electrical switching, fully reversible morphological changes at the surface, to which corre…
