Magnetic microscopy and simulation of strain-mediated control of magnetization in Ni/PMN-PT nanostructures

Published

October 17, 2016

Author(s)

Ian J. Gilbert, Andres C. Chavez, Daniel T. Pierce, John Unguris, Wei-Yang Sun, Cheng-Yen Liang, Gregory P. Carman

Abstract

Strain-mediated thin film multiferroics comprising piezoelectric/ferromagnetic heterostructures enable the electrical manipulation of magnetization with much greater efficiency than other methods; however, the investigation of nanostructures fabricated from these materials is limited. Here we characterize ferromagnetic Ni nanostructures grown on a ferroelectric PMN-PT substrate using scanning electron microscopy with polarization analysis (SEMPA) and micromagnetic simulations. The magnetization of the Ni nanostructures can be controlled with a combination of sample geometry and applied electric field, which strains the ferroelectric substrate and changes the magnetization via magnetoelastic coupling. We evaluate two types of simulations of ferromagnetic nanostructures on strained ferroelectric substrates: conventional micromagnetic simulations including a simple uniaxial strain, and coupled micromagnetic-elastodynamic simulations. Both simulations qualitatively capture the response of the magnetization changes produced by the applied strain, with the coupled solution providing more accurate representation.

Citation

Applied Physics Letters

Volume

109

Issue

16

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4965028

Keywords

artificial multiferroics, nanomagnetism, micromagnetics

Citation

Gilbert, I. , Chavez, A. , Pierce, D. , Unguris, J. , Sun, W. , Liang, C. and Carman, G. (2016), Magnetic microscopy and simulation of strain-mediated control of magnetization in Ni/PMN-PT nanostructures, Applied Physics Letters, [online], https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4965028 (Accessed October 11, 2025)