Electric-field control of magnetic domain-wall velocity in ultrathin cobalt with perpendicular magnetization.
Controlling the displacement of a magnetic domain wall is potentially useful for information processing in magnetic non-volatile memories and logic devices. A magnetic domain wall can be moved by applying an external magnetic field and/or electric current, and its velocity depends on their magnitudes. Here we show that the applying an electric field can change the velocity of a magnetic domain wall significantly. A field-effect device, consisting of a top-gate electrode, a dielectric insulator layer, and a wire-shaped ferromagnetic Co/Pt thin layer with perpendicular anisotropy, was used to observe it in a finite magnetic field. We found that the application of the electric fields in the range of ± 2-3 MV cm(-1) can change the magnetic domain wall velocity in its creep regime (10(6)-10(3) m s(-1)) by more than an order of magnitude. This significant change is due to electrical modulation of the energy barrier for the magnetic domain wall motion.
Institute for Chemical Research, Kyoto University, Gokasho, Uji, Kyoto, 611-0011, Japan. dchiba@scl.kyoto-u.ac.jp
D
D
Chiba
M
M
Kawaguchi
S
S
Fukami
N
N
Ishiwata
K
K
Shimamura
K
K
Kobayashi
T
T
Ono
D016880:Anisotropy; D003035:Cobalt / Q000737:chemistry*; D008280:Magnetics
D003035:Cobalt