Size Dependence of Domain Pattern Transfer in Multiferroic Heterostructures

TL;DR

This paper investigates how the size of ferroelectric domains affects their ability to imprint magnetic patterns into ferromagnetic films, revealing a critical size below which transfer fails and showing how magnetic field rotation causes regime shifts.

Contribution

The study introduces a combined micromagnetic simulation and 1-D model approach to analyze size-dependent domain transfer and magnetic anisotropy transitions in multiferroic heterostructures.

Findings

Domain pattern transfer breaks down below a critical domain width.

Magnetic field rotation causes abrupt transitions between anisotropy regimes.

Competing exchange and magnetostatic energies influence domain stability.

Abstract

Magnetoelectric coupling in multiferroic heterostructures can produce large lateral modulations of magnetic anisotropy enabling the imprinting of ferroelectric domains into ferromagnetic films. Exchange and magnetostatic interactions within ferromagnetic films oppose the formation of such domains. Using micromagnetic simulations and a 1-D model, we demonstrate that competing energies lead to the breakdown of domain pattern transfer below a critical domain width. Moreover, rotation of the magnetic field results in abrupt transitions between two scaling regimes with different magnetic anisotropy.