Giant direct magnetoelectric effect in strained multiferroic heterostructures

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that strain-induced lattice effects in multiferroic heterostructures can produce a giant direct magnetoelectric effect, with potential for tunable high-performance applications.

Contribution

It provides first-principles calculations showing how strain affects the magnetoelectric response in ferroelectric films on ferromagnetic substrates, revealing giant effects.

Findings

Magnetoelectric voltage coefficient exceeds 100 Vcm-1 Oe-1

Giant ME effects are strain-dependent and tunable

Nonmonotonic variation of ME response with strain

Abstract

The direct magnetoelectric (ME) effect mediated by lattice strains induced in a ferroelectric film by a ferromagnetic substrate is evaluated using first-principles-based calculations. To that end, the strain sensitivity of ferroelectric polarization and the film permittivity are calculated as a function of the in-plane biaxial strain for Pb(Zr0.52Ti0.48)O3 films under various depolarizing fields. It is found that the ME voltage coefficient varies nonmonotonically with this strain and may reach giant values exceeding 100 Vcm-1 Oe-1 over a strain range that can be controlled through the electrical boundary conditions.