title: Dynamic in situ observation of voltage-driven repeatable magnetization reversal at room temperature.
abstract: Purely voltage-driven, repeatable magnetization reversal provides a tantalizing potential for the development of spintronic devices with a minimum amount of power consumption. Substantial progress has been made in this subject especially on magnetic/ferroelectric heterostructures. Here, we report the in situ observation of such phenomenon in a NiFe thin film grown directly on a rhombohedral Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)0.7Ti0.3O3(PMN-PT) ferroelectric crystal. Under a cyclic voltage applied perpendicular to the PMN-PT without a magnetic field, the local magnetization of NiFe can be repetitively reversed through an out-of-plane excursion and then back into the plane. Using phase field simulations we interpret magnetization reversal as a synergistic effect of the metastable ferroelastic switching in the PMN-PT and an electrically rotatable local exchange bias field arising from the heterogeneously distributed NiO clusters at the interface.
authors.affiliation: School of Materials Science and Engineering, and State Key Lab of New Ceramics and Fine Processing, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
authors.forename: Ya
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA.
authors.forename: Jia-Mian
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA.
authors.forename: C T
authors.initials: CT
authors.lastname: Nelson
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA.
authors.forename: T N
authors.initials: TN
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: School of Materials Science and Engineering, and State Key Lab of New Ceramics and Fine Processing, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.affiliation: School of Materials Science and Engineering, and State Key Lab of New Ceramics and Fine Processing, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.|Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA.
authors.forename: L Q
authors.initials: LQ
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ramesh
authors.affiliation: School of Materials Science and Engineering, and State Key Lab of New Ceramics and Fine Processing, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
authors.forename: C W
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Nan