Electronic, magnetic, chemical, and mechanical phenomena occurring in metal/oxide heterostructures have recently received great attention in view of their exploitation in novel solid state devices. In particular, artificial multiferroics, i.e., layered or composite systems made of a ferromagnetic and ferroelectric phase, hold potential for achieving the electric control of the magnetization in spintronic devices. In this paper, a novel artificial multiferroic displaying perpendicular magnetic anisotropy is reported: the CoFeB/BaTiO3 bilayer. At room temperature, the CoFeB magnetic coercive field displays a hysteretic behavior, as a function of the voltage across the BaTiO3 layer, with a 60% variation for complete reversal of the ferroelectric BaTiO3 polarization. This is exploited to achieve the electric switching of the magnetization of individual CoFeB electrodes under a uniform magnetic bias field. Upon the local BaTiO3 polarization reversal, the CoFeB electrode jumps from an initial metastable state into the opposite stable magnetization state, with a characteristic switching time determined by magnetic viscosity. The magnetically assisted bipolar electric switching of the magnetization is demonstrated, via voltage pulses compatible with complementary metal‐oxide semiconductor (CMOS) electronics, under uniform bias fields as low as 10 Oe.
In article number 1600085, L. Baldrati et al. present a novel artificial multiferroic displaying perpendicular magnetic anisotropy: the CoFeB/BaTiO3 bilayer. Upon reversal of the BaTiO3 ferroelectric polarization, the CoFeB electrode jumps between upwards and downwards magnetization. The magnetically assisted bipolar electric switching of the magnetization is achieved, via CMOS compatible voltage pulses, under bias fields as low as 10 Oe.
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