Ferroelectric control of N\'eel vector in L10 type of antiferromagnetic films

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that ferroelectric polarization reversal in L10-MnPt/BaTiO3 bilayers can effectively control the magnetic anisotropy and Néel vector orientation in antiferromagnetic films, offering a potential route for low-power spintronic devices.

Contribution

It reveals the ferroelectric control of magnetic anisotropy and Nél vector switching in L10-MnPt films via interface engineering and polarization reversal, supported by first-principles calculations.

Findings

Large perpendicular MCA with Pt-O interface

In-plane MCA with Mn-O interface modulated by polarization

Néel vector switchable between in-plane and out-of-plane orientations

Abstract

How to efficiently manipulate the N\'eel vector of antiferromagnets (AFM) by electric methods is one of the major focuses in current antiferromagnetic spintronics. In this work, we investigated the ferroelectric control of magnetism in AFM L10-MnPt/BaTiO3 bilayers structures by using first-principles calculation. We studied the effect of ferroelectric polarization reversal on magnetic crystalline anisotropy (MCA) of L10-MnPt films with different interface structures. Our results predict a large perpendicular MCA in L10-MnPt films with Pt-O interface, while an in-plane MCA with Mn-O interface when they are interfaced with ferroelectric BaTiO3. In addition, the magnitude of MCA for both interfaces can be modulated efficiently by the polarization reversal of BaTiO3. The ferroelectric control of MCA has been analyzed based on second order perturbation theory, and it can be mainly attributed to the ferroelectric polarization driven redistribution of Pt-5d orbital occupation around Fermi energy. Especially, for Mn-O interface, the N\'eel vector can be switched between in-plane [100] and [110] directions, or even from in-plane to out-of-plane at certain film thickness by reversing ferroelectric polarization. Our results may provide a non-volatile concept for ferroelectric control of N\'eel vector in L10-antiferromagnets, which could stimulate experimental investigations on magnetoelectric effect of antiferromagnets and promote its applications in low-power consumption spintronic memory devices.