Angle Selective Piezoelectric Strain Controlled Magnetization Switching in Artificial Spin Ice Based Multiferroic System

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that electric field-induced strain can selectively switch magnetization by 180° in artificial spin ice systems, enabling low-power, scalable spintronics without magnetic fields.

Contribution

It introduces a novel ASI multiferroic system with angle-dependent magnetization switching, including a mechanism using two sequential electric pulses for efficient reversal.

Findings

Magnetization switches by 180° at specific angles (~30°-60°) of applied electric field.

Energy barrier becomes antisymmetric at these angles, enabling full magnetization reversal.

Proposed a two-pulse method for magnetization reversal with smaller electric field magnitudes.

Abstract

The prospect of all electrically controlled writing of ferromagnetic bits is highly desirable for developing scalable and energy-efficient spintronics devices. In the present work, we perform micromagnetic simulations to investigate the electric field-induced strain mediated magnetization switching in artificial spin ice (ASI) based multiferroic system, which is proposed to have a significant decrease in Joule heating losses compared to electric current based methods. As the piezo electric strain-based system cannot switch the magnetization by $180^\circ$ in ferromagnets, we propose an ASI multiferroic system consisting of the peanut-shaped nanomagnets on ferroelectric substrate with the angle between the easy axis and hard axis of magnetization less than $90^\circ$. Here the piezoelectric strain-controlled magnetization switching has been studied by applying the electric field pulse at different angles with respect to the axes of the system. Remarkably, magnetization switches by $180^\circ$ only if the external electric field pulse is applied at some specific angles, close to the anisotropy axis of the system ( $\sim 30^\circ - 60^\circ$). Our detailed analysis of the demagnetization energy variation reveals that the energy barrier becomes antisymmetric in such cases, facilitating the complete magnetization reversal. Moreover, we have also proposed a possible magnetization reversal mechanism with two sequential electric field pulses of relatively smaller magnitude. We believe that the present work could pave the way for future ASI-based multiferroic system for scalable magnetic field-free low power spintronics devices.