Article abstract
Nature Materials 5, 823 - 829 (2006)
doi:10.1038/nmat1731
Subject Categories: Ceramics | Electronic materials | Magnetic materials
Electrical control of antiferromagnetic domains in multiferroic BiFeO3 films at room temperature
T. Zhao1,6,1, A. Scholl2,7, F. Zavaliche1,7, K. Lee1, M. Barry1, A. Doran2, M. P. Cruz1,3, Y. H. Chu1, C. Ederer4, N. A. Spaldin4, R. R. Das5, D. M. Kim5, S. H. Baek5, C. B. Eom5 and R. Ramesh1
Abstract
Multiferroic materials, which offer the possibility of manipulating the magnetic state by an electric field or vice versa, are of great current interest. In this work, we demonstrate the first observation of electrical control of antiferromagnetic domain structure in a single-phase multiferroic material at room temperature. High-resolution images of both antiferromagnetic and ferroelectric domain structures of (001)-oriented multiferroic BiFeO3 films revealed a clear domain correlation, indicating a strong coupling between the two types of order. The ferroelectric structure was measured using piezo force microscopy, whereas X-ray photoemission electron microscopy as well as its temperature dependence was used to detect the antiferromagnetic configuration. Antiferromagnetic domain switching induced by ferroelectric polarization switching was observed, in agreement with theoretical predictions.
- Department of Physics and Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
- Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
- Centro de Ciencias de la Materia Condensada (CCMC)-UNAM Km 107, Carretera Tijuana-Ensenada Ensenada B.C., C.P 22800, Mexico
- Materials Department, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106, USA
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, USA
- Present address: Seagate Research, 1251 Waterfront Place, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15222, USA
- These authors contributed equally to this work
Correspondence to: e-mail: tong.zhao@seagate.com
Correspondence to: R. Ramesh1 e-mail: rramesh@berkeley.edu
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