Observation of the magnetoelectric reversal process of the antiferromagnetic domain

Yu Shiratsuchi, Shunsuke Watanabe, Hiroaki Yoshida, Noriaki Kishida, Ryoichi Nakatani, Yoshinori Kotani, Kentaro Toyoki, and Tetsuya Nakamura, Appl. Phys. Lett. 113, 242404 (2018); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5053925.
We investigated the switching process of the perpendicular exchange bias, which is driven by the magnetoelectric effect, by conducting magnetic domain observations using scanning soft X-ray magnetic circular dichroism microscopy. Isothermal and simultaneous application of magnetic and electric fields switches the perpendicular exchange bias polarity. The switching process proceeds by the nucleation and growth of reversed domains. The correspondence among the ferromagnetic/antiferromagnetic domains and exchange bias polarity indicates that interfacial antiferromagnetic spin/domain reversal is responsible for the magnetoelectric switching of the perpendicular exchange bias polarity.