Domino-like magnetic phase transition induced by a bias voltage in FeRh thin film

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a voltage-induced domino-like magnetic phase transition in FeRh thin films, significantly narrowing the transition field range and enabling nonvolatile magnetic phase switching at room temperature.

Contribution

It introduces a novel voltage-controlled method to induce and control magnetic phase transitions in FeRh thin films, reducing the transition field span and enabling nonvolatile switching.

Findings

Transition field span reduced from 6*10^4 Oe to below 2*10^3 Oe.

Voltage pulses enable nonvolatile magnetic phase switching.

Theoretical phase diagram matches experimental results.

Abstract

The first-order magnetic phase transition (MPT) usually happens with a very wide magnetic field span about tens of thousands Oersted which hinders its applications. In this work, we induce a domino-like MPT via introducing a bias voltage in FeRh thin film and thus realize a large narrowing of transition magnetic field span from 6*10^4 Oe to lower than 2*10^3 Oe at room temperature. Meanwhile, nonvolatile switchings between pure magnetic phases of FeRh at room temperature also can be realized by applying voltage pulses. The critical condition and phase diagram for domino-like MPTs are obtained in theory and our experiments support it well. Our works not only benefit the studies and applications of MPT-based devices but also are significant in the applications of the phase transition systems with resistance change.