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, suppressing the magnetic moment, under one FE polarization, but on reversed FE polarization this TM d-orbital moves upward, restoring the original magnetic moment. This finding of robust magnetoelectric effect in TM decorated graphene/In2Se3 heterostructure offers powerful insights and a promising avenue for experimental exploration of FE controlled magnetism in 2D materials.
Strain-mediated magnetoelectric (ME) coupling in ferroelectric (FE) / ferromagnetic (FM) heterostructures offers a unique opportunity for both fundamental scientific research and low power multifunctional devices. Relaxor-ferroelectrics, like (1-x)Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-(x)PbTiO3 (PMN-xPT), are ideal FE layer candidates due to their giant piezoelectricity. But thin films of PMN-PT suffer from substrate clamping which substantially reduces piezoelectric in-plane strains. Here we present the first demonstration of low voltage ME coupling in an all-thin-film heterostructure which utilizes the anisotrop…
Size dependent electric voltage-controlled magnetic anisotropy in multiferroic heterostructures: Interface-charge and strain co-mediated magnetoelectric coupling
High frequency susceptibility of a weak ferromagnet with magnetostrictive magnetoelectric coupling: using heterostructures to tailor electromagnon frequencies
Two-dimensional (2D) magnets have broad application prospects in the spintronics, but how to effectively control them with a small electric field is still an issue. Here we propose that 2D magnets can be efficiently controlled in a multiferroic heterostructure composed of 2D magnetic material and perovskite oxide ferroelectric (POF) whose dielectric polarization is easily flipped under a small electric field. We illustrate the feasibility of such strategy in the bilayer CrI3/BiFeO3(001) heterostructure by using the first-principles calculations. Different from the traditional POF multiferroic …
Magnetoelectric Coupling in Nickel-Cobalt Ferrite and Lanthanum Ferrite Heterostructure Composites: Experimental Evidence and Simulation-Driven Insights
The strain dependent functional properties of epitaxial transition metal oxide films can be significantly modified via substrate selection. However, large lattice mismatches preclude dislocation-free epitaxial growth on ferroelectric substrates, whose strain states are modified by applied electric fields. Here we overcome this mismatch problem by depositing an epitaxial film of ferromagnetic La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 on a single crystal substrate of well lattice matched SrTiO3 via a film of SrRuO3 that we subsequently dissolved, permitting the transfer of unstrained La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 to a ferroelectric subs…
The low power manipulation of magnetization is currently a highly sought-after objective in spintronics. Non ferromagnetic large spin-orbit coupling heavy metal (NM) / ferromagnet (FM) heterostructures offer interesting elements of response to this issue, by granting the manipulation of the FM magnetization by the NM spin Hall effect (SHE) generated spin current. Additional functionalities, such as the electric field control of the spin current generation, can be offered using multifunctional ferromagnets. We have studied the spin current transfer processes between Pt and the multifunctional m…
Two-dimensional (2D) semiconducting multiferroics that can effectively couple magnetic and polarization (P) orders have great interest for both fundamental research and technological applications in nanoscale, which are, however, rare in nature. In this study, we propose a general mechanism to realize semiconducting 2D multiferroics via vdW heterojunction engineering, as demonstrated in a typical heterostructure consisting of magnetic bilayer CrI3 (bi-CrI3) and ferroelectric monolayer In2Se3. Interestingly, the novel indirect orbital coupling between Se 4p and Cr 3d orbitals, intermediated by …
Hybrid heterostructure based phototransistors are attractive owing to their high gain induced by photogating effect. However, the absence of an in-plane built-in electric field in the single channel layer transistor results in a relatively higher dark current and require a large operating gate voltage of the device. Here, we report novel air-stable cesium lead iodide/tungsten di-sulfide (CsPbI$_3$/WS$_2$) mixed dimensional heterostructure based photo-field-effect-transistors (photo-FETs) with asymmetric metal electrodes (Cr/WS$_2$/Au), exhibiting extremely low dark current (~10-12 A) with a re…
Single-phase multiferroic materials are usually considered useless because of the weak magnetoelectric effects, low operating temperature, and small electric polarization induced by magnetic orders. As a result, current studies on applications of the magnetoelectric effects are mainly focusing on multiferroic heterostructures and composites. Here we report a room-temperature giant effect in response to external magnetic fields in single-phase multiferroics. A low magnetic field of 1000 Oe applied on the spin-driven multiferroic hexaferrites BaSrCo2Fe11AlO22 and Ba0.9Sr1.1Co2Fe11AlO22 is able t…
Magnetoelastic and magnetoelectric coupling in the artificial multiferroic heterostructures facilitate valuable features for device applications such as magnetic field sensors and electric write magnetic-read memory devices. In a ferromagnetic/ferroelectric heterostructures, the strain mediated coupling exploits piezoelectricity/electrostriction in ferroelectric phase and magnetostriction/piezomagnetism in ferromagnetic phase. Such verity of these combined effect can be manipulated by an external perturbation, such as electric field, temperature or magnetic field. Here, we demonstrate the remo…
Axion Insulator State in Hundred-Nanometer-Thick Magnetic Topological Insulator Sandwich Heterostructures
Department of Physics, The Pennsylvania State University（宾夕法尼亚州立大学物理系）；Department of Physics, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology（香港科技大学物理系）；Materials Research Institute, The Pennsylvania State University（宾夕法尼亚州立大学材料研究所）
