Engineering Commons^™

Magneto-Ionic Control Of Interfacial Magnetism, Geoffrey Beach

Composites at Lake Louise (CALL 2015)

Voltage control of magnetism has the potential to substantially reduce power consumption in spintronic memory and logic devices, while offering new functionalities through field-effect operation [1-4]. Magneto-electric coupling has most often been achieved using complex oxides such as ferroelectrics, piezoelectrics, or multiferroic materials. Here I describe a new approach to voltage control of magnetism based on solid-state electrochemical switching of the interfacial oxidation state [2-4] in thin metallic ferromagnets. In ultrathin ferromagnet/oxide bilayers, strong perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) often arises from arises from interfacial hybridization between the ferromagnetic metal and oxygen ions. By using a solid-state ionic conductor with high …