Recent progress in voltage control of magnetism: Materials, mechanisms, and performance

TL;DR

This review summarizes recent advances in voltage control of magnetism in thin films, covering mechanisms, materials, performance, and future challenges to enhance applications like low-power memory devices.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive classification of VCM mechanisms, materials, and performance metrics, highlighting recent progress and future directions in the field.

Findings

Identification of charge, strain, and exchange coupling mechanisms

Analysis of material influences on magnetic modulation efficiency

Discussion of VCM applications in low-power memory devices

Abstract

Voltage control of magnetism (VCM) is attracting increasing interest and exciting significant research activity driven by its profound physics and enormous potential for application. This review article aims to provide a comprehensive review of recent progress in VCM in different thin films. We first present a brief summary of the modulation of magnetism by electric fields and describe its discovery, development, classification, mechanism, and potential applications. In the second part, we focus on the classification of VCM from the viewpoint of materials, where both the magnetic medium and dielectric gating materials, and their influences on magnetic modulation efficiency are systematically described. In the third part, the nature of VCM is discussed in detail, including the conventional mechanisms of charge, strain, and exchange coupling at the interfaces of heterostructures, as well as the emergent models of orbital reconstruction and electrochemical effect. The fourth part mainly illustrates the typical performance characteristics of VCM, and discusses, in particular, its promising application for reducing power consumption and realizing high-density memory in several device configurations. The present review concludes with a discussion of the challenges and future prospects of VCM, which will inspire more in-depth research and advance the practical applications of this field.