Magnetoelectric Coupling in Well-Ordered Epitaxial BiFeO3/CoFe2O4/SrRuO3 Heterostructured Nanodot Array

Multiferroic magnetoelectric (ME) composites exhibit sizable ME coupling at room temperature, promising applications in a wide range of novel devices. For high density integrated devices, it is indispensable to achieve a well-ordered nanostructured array with reasonable ME coupling. For this purpose, we explored the well-ordered array of isolated epitaxial BiFeO3/CoFe2O4/SrRuO3 heterostructured nanodots fabricated by nanoporous anodic alumina (AAO) template method. The arrayed heterostructured nanodots demonstrate well-established epitaxial structures and coexistence of piezoelectric and ferromagnetic properties, as revealed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and peizoeresponse/magnetic force microscopy (PFM/MFM). It was found that the heterostructured nanodots yield apparent ME coupling, likely due to the effective transfer of interface couplings along with the substantial release of substrate clamping. A noticeable change in piezoelectric response of the nanodots can be triggered by magnetic field, indicating a substantial enhancement of ME coupling. Moreover, an electric field induced magnetization switching in these nanodots can be observed, showing a large reverse ME effect. These results offer good opportunities of the nanodots for applications in high-density ME devices, e.g., high density recording (>100 Gbit/in.(2)) or logic devices.