Ultralow-Power Orbital-Controlled Magnetization Switching Using a Ferromagnetic Oxide Interface
Abstract
A major challenge in spin-based electronics is reducing power consumption for magnetization switching of ferromagnets, which is implemented by injecting a large spin-polarized current. The alternative approach is to control the magnetic anisotropy (MA) of the ferromagnet by an electric field. However, the voltage-induced MA is too weak to deterministically switch the magnetization without an assisting magnetic field and a strategy towards this goal remains elusive. Here, we demonstrate a scheme of orbital-controlled magnetization switching (OCMS). A sharp change in the MA is induced when the Fermi level is moved between energy bands with different orbital symmetries. Using a ferromagnetic oxide interface, we show that OCMS can be used to achieve a deterministic and magnetic-field-free 90°-magnetization switching solely by applying a small electric field of 0.05 V nm-1 with a negligibly small current density of about 10-2 A cm-2. Our results highlight the huge potential of band engineering in ferromagnetic materials for efficient magnetization control.
- Publication:
-
Physical Review Applied
- Pub Date:
- October 2019
- DOI:
- 10.1103/PhysRevApplied.12.041001
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1904.10599
- Bibcode:
- 2019PhRvP..12d1001A
- Keywords:
-
- Condensed Matter - Materials Science
- E-Print:
- Phys. Rev. Applied 12, 041001 (2019)