Magnetic moment orientation of nano-islands by electrostriction along two directions.

This article introduces a new method to realize the 180° magnetic moment reversal of a ferromagnetic and ferroelectric heterostructure through electrostriction-induced magnetic anisotropy. A rectangular magnetic FeAl alloy island with a large magnetostrictive coefficient on a PZN (011) substrate was adopted in our investigation through micromagnetic simulation. Using electrostriction along the [11-1] and [1-11] directions, the magnetic moment was rotated from the long axis of the rectangular island to the direction of the strain and finally reversed to the opposite direction despite the strain sequence. The magnetic moment can be oriented to a certain direction through a certain sequence of strain if a several hundred Oe magnetic field is applied along the short axis of the island. The suitable stress-induced magnetic anisotropy energy and external magnetic field were also investigated. In consideration that a high magnetic field along the short axis leads to small thermal stability of the magnetic moment, the suitable value of stress-induced anisotropy energy is around the critical value where the stress can reverse the magnetic moment without a magnetic field. We compared the stress-induced magnetic reversal processes for same-sized semicircular, elliptical, and rectangular islands and found that the semicircular island can be more easily reversed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]