Building block for magnetoelectric spin-orbit logic opens new avenue for low-power beyond-CMOS technologies

The building block for magnetoelectric spin-orbit logic
Credit: Nature Communications (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-45868-x

In an article published in Nature Communications, an international team led by researchers from the Nanodevices group at CIC nanoGUNE succeeded in voltage-based magnetization switching and reading of magnetoelectric spin-orbit nanodevices. This study constitutes a proof of principle of these nanodevices, which are the building blocks for magnetoelectric spin-orbit (MESO) logic, opening a new avenue for low-power beyond-CMOS technologies.

googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-1449240174198-2’); });

A pathway for magnetic-field-free, voltage-based switching of magnetism has been proposed using magnetoelectric materials that exhibit more than one of the primary ferroic properties in the same phase. Among several possible combinations, the coexistence of ferroelectricity and ferromagnetism is expected to allow the control of magnetization through switching of the ferroelectric polarization with an electric field.

In this category, bismuth ferrite (BiFeO3) has been the most studied material, exhibiting a tight coupling between antiferromagnetic and ferroelectric orders at room temperature.

The road to multiferroic-based devices has been long and tortuous, with sparse results reported. Yet, it is expected that such devices can bring magnetization writing energies down to the attojoule range, an improvement of several orders of magnitude when compared with state-of-the-art current-based devices.

This driving force led to the recent proposal of MESO logic, suggesting a spin-based nanodevice adjacent to a multiferroic, where the magnetization is switched solely with a voltage pulse and is electrically read using spin-to-charge current conversion (SCC) phenomena.

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});

Now, a team of researchers demonstrated the experimental implementation of such a device. The team fabricated SCC nanodevices on BiFeO3 and analyzed the reversibility of the magnetization of ferromagnetic CoFe using a combination of piezoresponse and magnetic force microscopy, where the polarization state of the BiFeO3 and the magnetization of CoFe are imaged upon switching.

The researchers then correlated this with all-electrical SCC experiments where voltage pulses were applied to switch the BiFeO3, reversing the magnetization of CoFe (writing) and different SCC output voltages were measured depending on the magnetization direction (reading).

The published results support voltage-based magnetization switching and reading in nanodevices at room temperature, enabled by exchange coupling between multiferroic BiFeO3 and ferromagnetic CoFe, for writing, and SCC between CoFe and Pt, for reading.

While further work is required in terms of controllability and reproducibility of the switching, specifically regarding the ferroelectric and magnetic textures in BiFeO3, these results provide a key step forward toward voltage-control of magnetization in nanoscale magnets, essential for future low-power spin-based logic and memory devices.

More information:
Diogo C. Vaz et al, Voltage-based magnetization switching and reading in magnetoelectric spin-orbit nanodevices, Nature Communications (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-45868-x

Journal information:Nature Communications

Provided by
Elhuyar Fundazioa

READ MORE

What’s the difference between bees and wasps?

An apitherapy practitioner administers a bee sting to the hand of a patient at Cibubur [...]

From Sea to Shining Sea: Great Ways to Explore Canada

Lake Louise, one of the world’s most beautiful compositions of water, rock and ice, belongs [...]

A new, highly sensitive chemical sensor uses protein nanowires

Protein nanowires (light green) harvested from Geobacter (background) are sandwiched between electrodes (gold) to form [...]

Nanotechnology may improve gene therapy for blindness

Oregon Health & Science University and Oregon State University researchers are developing a new approach [...]

How Atavisms Work

In 2006, a bottlenose dolphin with palm-sized fins near its tail was found in Japan. [...]

Gold nanoclusters can improve electrochemical water splitting to produce hydrogen

Credit: Polyoxometalates (2023). DOI: 10.26599/POM.2023.9140031 As energy demand continues to rise, research into new, efficient [...]

Fighting cancer with light, and a drug that self-assembles into nanoparticles

EM images of PdL nanoparticles detected in DMEM, blood and tumor site. (a, b) TEM [...]

Machine learning model uncovers new drug design opportunities

Basic relationships among the descriptors. Each data point represents a molecule, and it is projected [...]