Electric control of magnetism at room temperature

Abstract

In the single-phase multiferroics, the coupling between electric polarization (P) and magnetization (M) would enable the magnetoelectric (ME) effect, namelyMinduced and modulated by E, and conversely P by H. Especially, the manipulation of magnetization by an electric field at room-temperature is of great importance in technological applications, such as new information storage technology, four-state logic device, magnetoelectric sensors, low-power magnetoelectric device and so on. Furthermore, it can reduce power consumption and realize device miniaturization, which is very useful for the practical applications. In an M-type hexaferrite SrCo2Ti2Fe8O19, large magnetization and electric polarization were observed simultaneously at room-temperature. Moreover, large effect of electric field-controlled magnetization was observed even without magnetic bias field. These results illuminate a promising potential to apply in magnetoelectric devices at room temperature and imply plentiful physics behind them.