Electrical Switching of Magnetic Polarity in a Multiferroic BiFeO3 Device at Room Temperature

We have directly imaged reversible electrical switching of the cycloidal rotation direction (magnetic polarity) in a (111)(pc)-BiFeO3 epitaxial-film device at room temperature by nonresonant x-ray magnetic scattering. Consistent with previous reports, fully relaxed (111)(pc)-BiFeO3 epitaxial films consisting of a single ferroelectric domain are found to comprise a submicron-scale mosaic of magnetoelastic domains, all sharing a common direction of the magnetic polarity, which is found to switch reversibly upon reversal of the ferroelectric polarization without any measurable change of the magnetoelastic domain population. A real-space polarimetry map of our device clearly distinguishes between regions of the sample electrically addressed into the two magnetic states with a resolution of a few tens of micron. Contrary to the general belief that the magneto-electric coupling in BiFeO3 is weak, we find that electrical switching has a dramatic effect on the magnetic structure, with the magnetic moments rotating on average by 90 degrees at every cycle.