Electric-field control of magnetism in iron oxide nanoparticle / BaTiO3 film composites

TL;DR

This study demonstrates electric-field control of magnetism in iron oxide nanoparticle / BaTiO3 composites through strain and interface charge effects, enabling tunable magnetic properties via electric stimuli.

Contribution

It introduces a novel composite structure with magnetoelectric coupling mediated by strain and interface charge, advancing control of magnetism with electric fields.

Findings

Magnetization varies with applied electric fields.

Magnetoelectric coupling observed in composite.

Electric control of magnetic properties demonstrated.

Abstract

We study composites of monodisperse ferrimagnetic nanoparticles (NPs) embedded into ferroelectric barium titanate (BTO) films. The BTO films were prepared by pulsed laser deposition. The composite consists of a stack of two BTO films sandwiching one monolayer of iron oxide NPs. We observe a magnetoelectric coupling due to strain and interface charge co-mediation between the BTO and the NPs. This is demonstrated by measurements of the magnetization as function of DC and AC electric fields.