A magnetoelectric memory cell with coercivity state as writing data bit

Commercial magnetic recording media employ magnetic-field-induced two different magnetization states +/- M to write data. In this paper, we present a magnetic memory cell in which electric-field-induced two different coercive-field H-c states (i.e., low-H-c and high-H-c) rather than +/- M are served as writing data bits. A multiferroic magnetoelectric bilayer with Fe0.93Ge0.07 film grown on fully poled ferroelectric BiScO3-PbTiO3 substrate, exhibiting a large electric-field modulation of H-c, is used for illustration of such a prototype electric-write/magnetic-read memory cell which is nonvolatile. The reading process of the different coercive-field H-c information written by electric fields is demonstrated by using magnetoresistance read head. (C) 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3405722].