Observation on Volatile and Nonvolatile Magnetic Reversions Mediated by Electric Current in Highly Conductive Gd3Fe5O12

Switching of magnetism with low energy consumption is the key for future spintronics. Utilizing a series of electrical break-down processes, we successfully convert the insulator Gd3Fe5O12 with resistance >2 x 10(8) Omega into a highly conductive semiconductor with a resistance of similar to 400 Omega. Combining X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, energy-dispersive spectrometry, and density functional theory, we propose that dramatic enhancements of Gd3Fe5O12 conductance may be due to the dilute Ag substitutions in Fe sites, which can significantly suppress the band gap of Gd3Fe5O12 by >75%. In the processed Gd3Fe5O12, magnetic properties including residual magnetization, coercive field, and saturated magnetism are found to be highly sensitive to electric currents. More importantly, both nonvolatile and zero-field volatile magnetization reversions are observed in processed Gd3Fe5O12 via applying an electric current with an ultralow density of similar to 10(-3)A/cm(2) under room temperature, suggesting that the novel conductive Gd3Fe5O12 is a promising candidate to achieve flexible and low-consumption switching of magnetism.