Physical Review X (Feb 2015)

Reversible Electric-Field-Driven Magnetic Domain-Wall Motion

  • Kévin J. A. Franke,
  • Ben Van de Wiele,
  • Yasuhiro Shirahata,
  • Sampo J. Hämäläinen,
  • Tomoyasu Taniyama,
  • Sebastiaan van Dijken

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevX.5.011010
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 5, no. 1
p. 011010

Abstract

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Control of magnetic domain-wall motion by electric fields has recently attracted scientific attention because of its potential for magnetic logic and memory devices. Here, we report on a new driving mechanism that allows for magnetic domain-wall motion in an applied electric field without the concurrent use of a magnetic field or spin-polarized electric current. The mechanism is based on elastic coupling between magnetic and ferroelectric domain walls in multiferroic heterostructures. Pure electric-field-driven magnetic domain-wall motion is demonstrated for epitaxial Fe films on BaTiO_{3} with in-plane and out-of-plane polarized domains. In this system, magnetic domain-wall motion is fully reversible and the velocity of the walls varies exponentially as a function of out-of-plane electric-field strength.