Electric field control of magnetism through modulating phase separation in (011)-Nd0.5Sr0.5MnO3/PMN-PT heterostructures

Yao Liu; Zhitong Xu; Kaiming Qiao; Feiran Shen; Andong Xiao; Jing Wang; Tianyu Ma; Fengxia Hu; Baogen Shen

doi:10.1039/D1NR00242B

Electric field control of magnetism through modulating phase separation in (011)-Nd_0.5Sr_0.5MnO₃/PMN-PT heterostructures†

Yao Liu,

^a Zhitong Xu,^a Kaiming Qiao,^b Feiran Shen,^bc Andong Xiao,^a Jing Wang,^bc Tianyu Ma,

*^a Fengxia Hu

*^bc and Baogen Shen^bc

Author affiliations

* Corresponding authors

^a Frontier Institute of Science and Technology and State Key Laboratory for Mechanical Behavior of Materials, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710054, China
E-mail: matianyu@xjtu.edu.cn

^b Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics and State Key Laboratory of Magnetism, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
E-mail: fxhu@iphy.ac.cn

^c Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory, Dongguan, Guangdong, China

Abstract

Large and non-volatile electric field control of magnetization is promising to develop memory devices with reduced energy consumption. Herein, we report the electric field control of magnetization with a non-volatile memory effect in an intermediate band Nd_0.5Sr_0.5MnO₃ film grown on a (011)-cut 0.7Pb(Mg_1/3Nb_2/3)O₃-0.3PbTiO₃ (PMN-PT) single crystal. Applying an electric field across the ferroelectric PMN-PT increases the magnetization of the Nd_0.5Sr_0.5MnO₃ film along both in-plane [100] and [01 [1 with combining macron] ] directions. Moreover, the magnetization does not recover to its original state after withdrawal of the electric field at temperatures below 70 K, demonstrating a non-volatile memory effect. Detailed investigation showed that (011)-PMN-PT exhibits an anisotropic in-plane strain due to an electric field-induced rhombohedral to orthorhombic phase transition. This electric field-induced anisotropic strain can dynamically transfer to Nd_0.5Sr_0.5MnO₃ film and modulate the magnetization of the Nd_0.5Sr_0.5MnO₃ film through adjusting its phase balance between ferromagnetic (FM) and charge-orbital ordered antiferromagnetic (COO AFM) phases. The non-volatile memory effect can be ascribed to the competition of thermal energy and energy barriers between the FM and COO AFM phases at low temperatures. This work broadens the knowledge of electric field control of magnetism in the intermediate band-manganite ferromagnetic/ferroelectric multiferroic heterostructures, and may also pave a way for the control of antiferromagnetism and to design antiferromagnet-based memories.

This article is part of the themed collection: 2021 Nanoscale HOT Article Collection

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Article information

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/D1NR00242B
Article type: Paper
Submitted: 13 Jan 2021
Accepted: 13 Mar 2021
First published: 15 Mar 2021

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Nanoscale, 2021,13, 8030-8037

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Electric field control of magnetism through modulating phase separation in (011)-Nd_0.5Sr_0.5MnO₃/PMN-PT heterostructures

Y. Liu, Z. Xu, K. Qiao, F. Shen, A. Xiao, J. Wang, T. Ma, F. Hu and B. Shen, Nanoscale, 2021, 13, 8030 DOI: 10.1039/D1NR00242B

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