abstract
A phenomenon that can be exploited for the manipulation of magnetization without the conventional current-generated magnetic fields is magnetoelastic coupling, which might, thus, pave the way for low-power data-storage devices. Here, we report a quantitative analysis of the magnetic uniaxial anisotropy induced by piezoelectric strain in Ni nanostructured squares. By applying strain, the magnetic domains in Ni nanostructured squares can be manipulated by the magnetoelastic effect in the Ni. The strain-induced anisotropy displaces the domain walls in the square leading to changes in the domain sizes. By comparing the experiments with micromagnetic simulations, the resulting uniaxial anisotropy is quantified. We find a good agreement for a magnetostrictive constant of lambda(s) = -26 ppm, confirming a full strain transfer from the piezoelectric to the Ni nanostructures and the retainment of a bulklike lambda(s).
keywords
MICROSCOPY
subject category
Physics
authors
Finizio, S; Foerster, M; Buzzi, M; Kruger, B; Jourdan, M; Vaz, CAF; Hockel, J; Miyawaki, T; Tkach, A; Valencia, S; Kronast, F; Carman, GP; Nolting, F; Klaui, M
our authors
Oleksandr Tkach
Assistant Researcheracknowledgements
Part of this work was performed at the Swiss Light Source, Paul Scherrer Institut, Villigen, Switzerland and at the Helmholtz-Zentrum-Berlin, Germany. The authors further acknowledge the financial support by the EU's 7th Framework Programme IFOX (Grant No. NMP3-LA-2010 246102), the European Research Council through the Starting Independent Researcher Grant MASPIC (Grant No. ERC-2007-StG 208162), the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1160504 NSF Nanosystems Engineering Research Center for Translational Applications of Nanoscale Multiferroic Systems (TANMS), the Swiss National Science Foundation, the Graduate School of Excellence