Multiferroic heterostructures of Fe3O4/PMN-PT prepared by atomic layer deposition for enhanced interfacial magnetoelectric couplings

In this work, multiferroic heterostructures have been prepared by in situ growing oxide magnetic films on ferroelectric single crystal substrates using atomic layer deposition (ALD). Strong interfacial mechanical coupling between the magnetic and ferroelectric phases has been created, arising from the formation of chemical bonds at the interface due to the nature of layer-by-layer self-limiting growth mechanism of the ALD technique. An enhanced magnetoelectric (ME) coupling has been achieved, which allows an electric field to robustly switch magnetic anisotropy up to 780 Oe. In addition, electrical impulse non-volatile tuning of magnetism has also been realized through partially coupled ferroelectric/ferroelastic domain switching. The ALD growth of magnetic oxide films onto ferroelectric substrates provides an effective platform for the preparation of multiferroic heterostructures at low temperatures with an improved ME coupling, demonstrating a great potential for applications in 3D spintronics, microelectronics and data storages. Published by AIP Publishing.