Spatially resolved strain-imprinted magnetic states in an artificial multiferroic

Abstract

Artificial multiferroic systems, in which novel properties can emerge from elastic coupling between piezoelectric and magnetostrictive phases, are a promising route to obtain significant room-temperature magnetoelectric coupling at the nanoscale. In this work, we have used element-specific soft x-ray photoemission electron microscopy to spatially resolve the effects of ferroelectric BaTiO${}_{3}$ on the magnetic properties of ferromagnetic layers of CoFe${}_{2}$O${}_{4}$ and NiFe${}_{2}$O${}_{4}$. Resulting from the large magnetoelastic anisotropy present in these artificial multiferroic systems, a modification of the orientation and symmetry of the magnetic easy axes of the ferromagnetic film upon changing the underlying domain structure of the ferroelectric has been observed. This opens the possibility to strain-imprint magnetic states in these systems.