Voltage-Gated 90° Switching of Bulk Perpendicular Magnetic Anisotropy in Ferrimagnets
Unraveling the mechanism behind bulk perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) in amorphous rare earth-transition metal films has proven challenging. This is largely due to the inherent complexity of the amorphous structure and the entangled potential origins arising from microstructure and atomic structure factors. Here, we present an approach wherein the magneto-electric effect is harnessed to induce 90° switching of bulk PMA in Tb-Co films to in-plane directions by applying voltages of only -1.2 V. This manipulation is achieved by voltage-driven insertion of hydrogen atoms into interstitial sites between Tb and Co atoms, which serves as a perturbation to the local atomic structure. Using angle-dependent X-ray magnetic circular dichroism, we find that the anisotropy switching originates from the distortion of the crystal field around Tb, which reorients the alignment of Tb orbital moments. Initially aligned along Tb-Co bonding directions, the easy magnetization axis undergoes reorientation and switches by 90°, as substantiated by ab initio calculations. Our study not only concludes the atomic origin of Tb-Co atom bonding configuration in shaping bulk PMA but also establishes the groundwork for electrically programmable ferrimagnetic spintronics, such as controlling domain wall motion and programming artificial spin textures.
Authors
- Konstantin Skokov (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4321-9021)
- Oliver Gutfleisch (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8021-3839)
- K. Kummer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3044-7957)
- Zhiyong Quan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8517-9622)
- Johanna Lill (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6733-0691)
- Robert Kruk (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4951-0717)
- Fernando Maccari (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4585-4179)
- Xinglong Ye (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9515-4816)
- P. Klassen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-1748-1060)
- Benedikt Eggert (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7739-3541)
- Zhengyu Xiao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6274-7340)
- Heiko Wende (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8395-3541)
- Ruiwen Xie (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7421-9203)
- Yuting Dai (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8275-2115)
- Katharina Ollefs (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2301-4670)
- Horst Hahn (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9901-3861)
- Raquel Lizárraga (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6794-6744)
- Xiaohong Xu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7588-4793)
- Di Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9817-7047)
- Hongbin Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1035-8861)
- Tom Helbig
Institutions
- Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (DE)
- European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (FR)
- Technische Universität Darmstadt (DE)
- Nanomaterials Research (United States) (US)
- Institute of Nanotechnology (GB)
- Wallenberg Wood Science Center (SE)
- University of Duisburg-Essen (DE)
- University of Oklahoma (US)
- KTH Royal Institute of Technology (SE)
- Shanxi Normal University (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- ACS Nano
- Published
- 2025-02-04
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.4c11663
- Citations
- 2
- Primary Topic
- Magnetic properties of thin films
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 2.49
Funders
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
- Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung
- China Scholarship Council