Piezo-Voltage Manipulation of the Magnetization and Magnetic Reversal in Thin Fe Film

Abstract

We carefully investigated the in-plane magnetic reversal and corresponding magnetic domain structures in Fe/GaAs/piezo-transducer heterostructure using longitudinal magneto-optical Kerr microscopy. The coexistence of the <100> cubic magnetic anisotropy and uniaxial magnetic anisotropy was observed in our Fe thin film grown on GaAs. The induced deformation along [110] orientation can effectively manipulate the magnetic reversal with magnetic field applied along magnetic uniaxial hard [110] axes. The control of two-jump magnetization switching to one-jump magnetization switching during the magnetic reversal was achieved by piezo-voltages with magnetic field applied in [100] direction. The additional uniaxial anisotropy induced by piezo-voltages at -75 /75V are -1.400/1400 J/m3 .