Multistate resistance switching in Bi/PMN–PT(111) heterostructures by electric and magnetic field.

Bi thin films were grown on (111)-oriented 0.7Pb(Mg_1/3Nb_2/3)O₃–0.3PbTiO₃ (PMN–PT) single-crystal substrates by pulsed laser deposition. Resistance of Bi/PMN–PT could be modulated by asymmetrical bipolar electric field in a reversible and nonvolatile manner at 300 K. By tuning asymmetrical bipolar electric field, different nonvolatile strain states could be generated in PMN–PT and transferred to Bi thin film, which leads to different nonvolatile resistance states. Furthermore, different resistance states of the Bi films could be achieved under different magnetic field at 300 K. The ferroelastic strain- and magnetic-field-modulated resistive properties in Bi/PMN–PT suggest a promising approach for multistate resistive memories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]