Electric-Field Control of Magnetism in Co₄₀Fe₄₀B₂₀/(1-x)Pb(Mg_1/3Nb_2/3)O₃‑xPbTiO₃ Multiferroic Heterostructures with Different Ferroelectric Phases

Abstract

Electric-field control of magnetism in multiferroic heterostructures composed of Co₄₀Fe₄₀B₂₀ (CoFeB) and (1-x)­Pb­(Mg_1/3Nb_2/3)­O₃-xPbTiO₃ (PMN-xPT) with different ferroelectric phases via changing composition and temperature is explored. It is demonstrated that the nonvolatile <i>looplike</i> bipolar-electric-field-controlled magnetization, previously found in the CoFeB/PMN-xPT heterostructures with PMN-xPT in the rhombohedral (R) phase around the morphotropic phase boundary (MPB), also occurs for PMN-xPTs with both R phase (far away from MPB) and monoclinic (M) phase, suggesting that the phenomenon is the common feature of CoFeB/PMN-xPT multiferroic heterostructures for PMN-xPT with different phases. The magnitude of the effect changes with increasing temperature and volatile bipolar-electric-field-controlled magnetization with a <i>butterflylike</i> behavior occurs when the ferroelectric phase changes to the tetragonal phase (T). Moreover, for the R-phase sample with x = 0.18, an abrupt and giant increase of magnetization is observed at a characteristic temperature in the temperature dependence of magnetization curve. These results are discussed in terms of coupling between magnetism and ferroelectric domains including macro- and microdomains for different ferroelectric phases. This work is helpful for understanding the phenomena of electric-field control of magnetism in FM/FE multiferroic heterostructures and is also important for applications