Electric field control of domain wall logic in piezoelec-tric/ferromagnetic nanodevices

Abstract

Power dissipation is one of the most important factors limiting the future miniaturisation of integrated circuits. The capability of controlling magnetic states with a low voltage through magnetoelectric coupling in magnetostrictive/piezoelectric systems may pave the way toward ultra low-power electronics. Although the former effect has been demon-strated in several multiferroic heterostructures, the incorporation of such complex geometries into practical magnetic memory and logic nanodevices has been lacking. Here, we demonstrate the room temperature control of a domain wall gate with an electric field in a nanowire consisting of a laterally polarized piezoelectric bar inducing a giant strain in a ferromagnetic spin-valve. We propose to use such novel domain wall gate as an elementary brick to generate a complete set of boolean logic functions or stabilize domain walls in high density memory applications.