Persistent anisotropy of the spin cycloid in BiFeO3 through ferroelectric switching

Abstract

A key challenge in antiferromagnetic spintronics is the control of spin configuration on nanometer scales applicable to solid-state technologies. Bismuth ferrite (BiFeO3) is a multiferroic material that exhibits both ferroelectricity and canted antiferromagnetism at room temperature, making it a unique candidate in the development of electric-field controllable magnetic devices. The magnetic moments in BiFeO3 are arranged into a spin cycloid, resulting in unique magnetic properties which are tied to the ferroelectric order. Previous understanding of this coupling has relied on average, mesoscale measurements to infer behavior. Using nitrogen vacancy-based diamond magnetometry, we show that the spin cycloid can be deterministically controlled with an electric field. The energy landscape of the cycloid is shaped by both the ferroelectric degree of freedom and strain-induced anisotropy, restricting the magnetization changes to specific ferroelectric switching events. This study provides understanding of the antiferromagnetic texture in BiFeO3 and paves new avenues for designing magnetic textures and spintronic devices.

arXiv comment28 pages, 4 main text figures, 8 supp figures

References in corpus (10)

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• Theory and phase-field simulations on electrical control of spin cycloids in a multiferroic
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Cited by in corpus (5)

• Imaging ferroelectric domains with soft X-ray ptychography at the oxygen K-edge
• Reentrant polar phase induced by the ferro-ionic coupling in Bi${}_{1-x}$Sm${}_x$FeO${}_3$ nanoparticles
• Field-Resilient Supercurrent Diode in a Multiferroic Josephson Junction
• Room-Temperature Noncolinear Ferroelectricity in van der Waals WO${}_2$Cl${}_2$ with a Wide Bandgap
• Flipping of electronic spins in BiFeO${}_3$ via chiral $d-d$ excitations