Reversible Magneto-ionic Modification of Metallic Magnetic Thin Films
Md Golam Hafiz1,2, Hari Babu Vasili1, Philippa Shepley1
1School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, U.K.
ACS Applied Electronic Materials
|April 20, 2026
Summary
Researchers demonstrate electrically controlled, reversible changes in magnetic properties of metallic multilayers using oxygen migration. This magneto-ionic modulation offers promising applications for field-programmable spintronic devices.
Area of Science:
- Materials Science
- Condensed Matter Physics
- Nanotechnology
Background:
- Magnetic multilayers with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) and Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI) are crucial for spintronic data processing.
- Existing methods for tuning these properties are often limited or non-reversible.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate controlled, nonvolatile, and reversible local modification of magnetic properties in metallic multilayers.
- To explore the use of electrically driven oxygen migration for tuning magnetic characteristics.
Main Methods:
- Utilized ionic liquid gating to induce and control oxygen migration through a metallic film structure.
- Applied varying gate voltages to alter the oxidation state at the heavy metal (HM)/ferromagnet (FM) interface.
- Measured changes in fundamental magnetic properties, including effective anisotropy constant (Keff), coercive field (Hc), magnetic moment, and DMI.
Main Results:
- Demonstrated direct evidence of oxidation state modification at the HM/FM interface via oxygen migration.
- Observed reversible changes in Keff and Hc with oxidation (increase) and reduction (decrease).
- Showed that positive gate voltages decrease domain nucleation field, while negative voltages increase domain wall pinning and decrease magnetic moment and DMI.
Conclusions:
- Magneto-ionic modulation in fully metallic structures provides a novel method for tuning magnetic properties.
- This technique enables controlled, reversible, and nonvolatile modification of PMA and DMI.
- The findings are highly beneficial for developing field-programmable domain wall and skyrmion-based spintronic devices.
Keywords:
Dzyaloshinskii Moriya interactionIonic liquid gatingX-ray absorption spectroscopyX-ray magnetic circular dichroismX-ray photoelectron spectroscopyanomalous Hall effectmagnetic anisotropymagnetic momentMore Related Videos
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