Isothermal electric switching of magnetization in Cr2O3/Co thin film system

We investigated the magnetoelectric properties of Cr2O3/Co all-thin-film exchange coupling system with Cr spacer layer. In this system, significantly small coercivity (H-c < 50 Oe) was obtained by the Cr spacer layer insertion between Cr2O3 and Co layers. Owing to the small H-c, exchange bias field, H-ex, larger than H-c was achieved. It enabled us to observe magnetization switching at a zero magnetic field, when H-ex was reversed by magnetoelectric effect of Cr2O3 layer. Finally, we demonstrated the isothermal magnetoelectric switching of magnetization in the Cr2O3/Cr/Co all-thin-film system. By changing the direction of the electric field during the isothermal magnetoelectric switching process, both H-ex and magnetization at a zero magnetic field were reversed back and forth, i.e., isothermal magnetization switching by an electric field was achieved. (C) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC.