Magnetic tunnel junction on a ferroelectric substrate

The concept of a magnetic tunnel junction fabricated on a ferroelectric substrate is described theoretically. It is shown that the application of a moderate electric field to a substrate having strong piezoelectric response may induce an in-plane magnetization rotation in a ferromagnetic electrode made of a highly magnetostrictive cubic material with small magnetocrystalline anisotropy. Remarkably, an abrupt change of the junction's electrical resistance can result from the substrate-induced magnetization reorientation in the free ferromagnetic layer. Hence the described hybrid multiferroic device may be employed as an electric-write nonvolatile magnetic memory cell with nondestructive readout. (C) 2009 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3253706]