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March 17, 2026 02:20 PM

Magnetization Reversal by Electric Field in Co Substituted BiFeO3 Thin Films

Prof. Masaki Azuma from Institute of Integrated Research, Institute of Science Tokyo

@ Chin-Pao Yang Lecture Hall, R104, CCMS-New Phys. Building

Abstract: 

Electric field manipulation of magnetization is intensively investigated because of potential application in low-power-consumption non-volatile magnetic memory devises. Ferroelectric BiFeO3 has a cycloidal space-modulated spin structure with a periodicity of 62 nm superimposed on the G-type antiferromagnetic structure which prohibits the appearance of net ferromagnetic magnetization due to spin canting. We have found a spin structure transition from low-temperature cycloidal one to high-temperature collinear one with spontaneous magnetization of 0.03 μB/f.u. confined in a magnetic easy plane perpendicular to the electric polarization is generated by Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction at ~200 K in rhombohedral BiFe1-xCoxO3 [1-3]. (001)pc oriented thin films fabricated by pulsed laser deposition on GdScO3 (110) substrate has out-of-plane component of magnetization which can be observed by magnetic force microscopy (MFM). It is demonstrated that the out-of-plane magnetization can be reversed accompanying electric polarization reversal using piezo response force microscopy (PFM) at room temperature [4]. Magnetization reversal by in-plane electric field was achieved in (110) oriented BFCO film [5]. Changes in ferroelectric and magnetic domains after poling in BiFe0.1Co0.9O3 nanodots with topological domain structures will also be discussed [6,7]. 

1.    H. Yamamoto, T. Kihara, K. Oka, M. Tokunaga, K. Mibu, M. Azuma, J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 85, 064704 (2016).
2.    H. Yamamoto, Y. Sakai, K. Shigematsu, T. Aoyama, T. Kimura, M. Azuma., Inorg. Chem., 56, 15171 (2017).
3.    H. Hojo, R. Kawabe, K. Shimizu, H. Yamamoto, K. Mibu, K. Samanta, T. Saha-Dasgupta, M. Azuma, Adv. Mater., 29, 160313 (2017).
4.    K. Shimizu, R. Kawabe, H. Hojo, H. Shimizu, H. Yamamoto, M. Katsumata, K. Shigematsu, K. Mibu, Y. Kumagai, F. Oba, M. Azuma, Nano Lett., 19, 1767-177 (2019).
5.    T. Itoh, K. Shigematsu, H. Das, P. Meisenheimer, K. Maeda, K. Lee M. Manna, S. P. Reddy, S. Susarla, P. Stevenson, R. Ramesh and M. Azuma, Adv. Mater., 37, 2419580 (2025).
6.    K. Ozawa, Y. Nagase, M. Katsumata, K. Shigematsu, M. Azuma, ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, 16, 20930 (2024).
7.    K. Lee, P. Meisenheimer, P. Stevenson, Y. Nagase, K. Shigematsu, R. Ramesh, M. Azuma, under review. 

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