Nonvolatile switching of magnetostrictive nanodot from single-domain to vortex states by voltage at room temperature

We report the voltage regulation of electrodeposited elliptical magnetostrictive Ni nanodot arrays from single-domain to nonvolatile vortex state at room temperature. On the piezoelectric substrate, isolated elliptical Ni nanodots are fabricated between a pair of square electrodes, with the long axis parallel to the joint line of the electrodes. By applying a voltage to the surface electrodes pair, local stress is generated to induce the magnetization of the nanodots from single-domain to vortex state. The magnetization state of the nanodots is characterized by a magnetic force microscope. Even after the voltage is removed or applying another voltage, the nanodots maintain a stable vortex magnetization state, which shows that the vortex state after regulation is nonvolatile. These results are of great significance for the study of the low-energy-consumption regulation of the nano-dimensional magnetic material and vortex state-based nonvolatile memory.