1. Nonvolatile ferroelectric control of ferromagnetism in (Ga,Mn)As
- Author
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Stolichnov, I., Riester, S. W. E., Trodahl, H. J., Setter, N., Rushforth, A. W., Edmonds, K. W., Campion, R. P., Foxon, C. T., Gallagher, B. L., and Jungwirth, T.
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Condensed Matter - Materials Science - Abstract
There is currently much interest in materials and structures that provide coupled ferroelectric and ferromagnetic responses, with a long-term goal of developing new memories and spintronic logic elements. Within the field there is a focus on composites coupled by magnetostrictive and piezoelectric strain transmitted across ferromagnetic-ferroelectric interfaces, but substrate clamping limits the response in the supported multilayer configuration favoured for devices. This constraint is avoided in a ferroelectric-ferromagnetic bilayer in which the magnetic response is modulated by the electric field of the poled ferroelectric. Here, we report the realization of such a device using a diluted magnetic semiconductor (DMS) channel and a polymer ferroelectric gate. Polarization reversal of the gate by a single voltage pulse results in a persistent modulation of the Curie temperature as large as 5%. The device demonstrates direct and quantitatively understood electric-fieldmediated coupling in a multiferroic bilayer and may provide new routes to nanostructured DMS materials and devices via ferroelectric domain nanopatterning. The successful implementation of a polymer-ferroelectric gate fieldeffect transistor (FeFET) with a DMS channel adds a new functionality to semiconductor spintronics and may be of importance for future low-voltage spintronics devices and memory structures., Comment: 19 pages, 5 figures
- Published
- 2008
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