Physics Commons^™

Magnetoelectric Effect At The Ni/Hfo2 Interface Induced By Ferroelectric Polarization, Qiong Yang, Lingling Tao, Zhen Jiang, Yichun Zhou, Evgeny Tsymbal, Vitaly Alexandrov

Evgeny Tsymbal Publications

Driven by the technological importance of the recently discovered ferroelectric HfO₂, we explore a magnetoelectric effect at the HfO₂-based ferroelectric-ferromagnetic interface. Using density-functionaltheory calculations of the Ni/HfO₂/Ni (001) heterostructure as a model system, we predict a stable and sizable ferroelectric polarization in a few-nm-thick HfO₂ layer. For the Ni/HfO₂ interface with opposite polarization directions (pointing to or away from the interface), we find a sizable difference in the interfacial Ni—O bonding, resulting in dissimilar degrees of depletion of the electron density around the interface. The latter affects the relative population of the …