Light-Controlled Magnetoelastic Effects in Ni/BaTiO₃ Heterostructures.

Area of Science:

• Condensed Matter Physics
• Materials Science
• Nanotechnology

Background:

• Artificial multiferroic heterostructures exhibit magnetoelastic and magnetoelectric coupling, crucial for applications like magnetic field sensors and electric-write magnetic-read memory.
• These coupled properties in ferromagnetic/ferroelectric heterostructures can be modulated by external stimuli such as electric fields, temperature, or magnetic fields.

Purpose of the Study:

• To demonstrate the remote-controlled tunability of magnetoelastic and magnetoelectric effects in Ni/BaTiO3 heterostructures using visible, coherent, and polarized light.
• To investigate the underlying physical mechanisms responsible for light-induced manipulation of magnetic microstructure.

Main Methods:

• Combined surface and bulk magnetic studies were performed on Ni/BaTiO3 heterostructures.
• The study analyzed the influence of light illumination on domain-correlated structures, piezoelectricity, ferroelectric polarization, spin imbalance, magnetostriction, and magnetoelectric coupling.
• Ferroelastic domain structure transfer and light-induced domain wall motion were investigated.

Main Results:

• The Ni/BaTiO3 heterostructures exhibited strong sensitivity to visible light illumination.
• A well-defined ferroelastic domain structure was transferred from the ferroelectric BaTiO3 substrate to the magnetostrictive Ni layer via interface strain.
• Visible light successfully manipulated the ferromagnetic microstructure by inducing domain wall motion in the ferroelectric layer, which propagated to the ferromagnetic layer.

Conclusions:

• Visible light can remotely control magnetoelastic and magnetoelectric coupling in Ni/BaTiO3 heterostructures.
• The findings suggest potential for room-temperature spintronic device applications, mimicking remote-controlled ferroelectric random-access memory write and magnetic random-access memory read functionalities.