# Control of non-volatile magnetic properties of Fe/CoO grown on a piezoelectric substrate

## TL;DR

This paper shows how electric fields can change the magnetic properties of an Fe/CoO bilayer on a special substrate, but not in a single Fe layer.

## Contribution

The study demonstrates non-volatile electric field control of magnetic properties in an Fe/CoO bilayer via piezoelectric effects.

## Key findings

- Electric fields induce a non-volatile change in the coercive field of Fe/CoO below the blocking temperature of CoO.
- X-ray measurements show that the magnetic state of the CoO layer is primarily responsible for the observed modulation.
- No piezoelectric influence on magnetic properties was found in a single Fe layer on the same substrate.

## Abstract

In this study, we investigate the piezoelectric modulation of magnetic properties in an Fe/CoO bilayer grown on a Cr-buffered PMN-PT(001) substrate. An initial application of an electric field across the substrate has induced a non-volatile change in the coercive field of Fe/CoO. Subsequent voltage applications further modified the coercive field of Fe/CoO, maintaining the non-volatile effect below the blocking temperature of CoO. In contrast, no piezoelectric influence on the magnetic properties was observed in the Fe single layer grown on Cr/PMN-PT. X-ray magnetic linear dichroism measurements confirmed that the piezoelectric-driven modulation of magnetic behavior in Fe/CoO bilayer is primarily governed by changes in the magnetic state of the CoO film.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1038/s41598-025-31017-x.