Abstract
A magnon is a collective excitation of the spin structure in a magnetic insulator and can transmit spin angular momentum with negligible dissipation. This quantum of a spin wave has always been manipulated through magnetic dipoles (that is, by breaking time-reversal symmetry). Here we report the experimental observation of chiral spin transport in multiferroic BiFeO3 and its control by reversing the ferroelectric polarization (that is, by breaking spatial inversion symmetry). The ferroelectrically controlled magnons show up to 18% modulation at room temperature. The spin torque that the magnons in BiFeO3 carry can be used to efficiently switch the magnetization of adjacent magnets, with a spin–torque efficiency comparable to the spin Hall effect in heavy metals. Utilizing such controllable magnon generation and transmission in BiFeO3, an all-oxide, energy-scalable logic is demonstrated composed of spin–orbit injection, detection and magnetoelectric control. Our observations open a new chapter of multiferroic magnons and pave another path towards low-dissipation nanoelectronics.
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Data availability
The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding authors on reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
We are grateful for fruitful discussions with A. Fert, E. Parsonnet and Y. Huang. X.C., P.S., D.V., S.S., L.W.M., Z.Y. and R.R. acknowledge support from the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Sciences and Engineering Division under Contract No. DE-AC02-05-CH11231 (Codesign of Ultra- Low-Voltage Beyond CMOS Microelectronics for the development of materials for low-power microelectronics). X.H. and D.C.R. acknowledge support from the SRC-JUMP ASCENT centre. R.J. acknowledges support from the US Department of Energy, under contract no. DE-SC0017671. Y.L. and R.C. acknowledge support from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research under grant no. FA9550-19-1-0307. T.W. and Z.Q. acknowledge support from the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Sciences and Engineering Division under contract no. DE-AC02-05CH11231 (van der Waals heterostructures programme, KCWF16). This research used resources of the Advanced Light Source, which is a DOE Office of Science User Facility under contract no. DE-AC02-05CH11231. H.T. acknowledges support from the Bakar Fellows Program. H.P. acknowledges support from Army Research Office and Army Research Laboratory via the Collaborative for Hierarchical Agile and Responsive Materials (CHARM) under cooperative agreement W911NF-19-2-0119. J.M. has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement SCALES – 897614. D.R.R. acknowledges funding from the Ministerio dell’Università e della Ricerca, Decreto Ministeriale n. 1062 del 10/08/2021 (PON Ricerca e Innovazione). O.H. acknowledges support from the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences, Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering.
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X.C. and R.R. supervised this study. X.H. carried out the synthesis and characterization of heterostructures. X.H. and X.C. fabricated the devices. X.H. and R.J. carried out the ST-FMR measurements. X.H. and X.C. carried out the current-induced magnetization switching measurements. X.C. performed the non-local transport measurements for BFO heterostructures. C.K. performed dynamic XMCD measurements at Beamline 4.0.2 of the Advanced Light Source. Y.L. and R.C. performed the theoretical calculations. J.M., D.R.R., O.H. and J.Í. developed and performed the coupled polar-micromagnetic simulations. X.C., Z.Y. and D.V. devised the electronic model and performed the calculations. S. Susarla performed the microstructure and electronic structure characterizations. H.Z., T.W., L.C., C.H.-H., I.H., S.H., H.P., J.Y., P.M., P.S., Z.Q., S. Salahuddin, M.R., D.G.S., L.W.M. and D.C.R. gave suggestions on the experiments. All authors discussed the results and prepared the manuscript.
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Extended data
Extended Data Fig. 1 NV magnetometry image for BiFeO3.
a, b, Schematic illustrations of ferroelectric domains and the corresponding spin cycloid propagation directions before and after polarization switching. The pink arrows represent the ferroelectric polarization orientations. c, d,Magnetic stray field distribution recorded with scanning NV magnetometer for 100 nm BiFeO3 before and after polarization switching. The blue arrows are the spin cycloid propagation wave vector. e, f, Magnetic stray field distribution recorded with scanning NV magnetometer for 30 nm and 100 nm BiFeO3 respectively.
Extended Data Fig. 2 Calculated magnon band for BiFeO3.
a, b magnon band dispersion for BiFeO3 with negative and positive Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction respectively. In the absence of the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (D=0), magnon bands are doubly degenerate due to the combined PT-symmetry (black dashed line). These degenerate magnon bands are linearly-polarized. Introducing Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction breaks the degeneracy, resulting in two shifted circularly polarized magnon bands (lines in color).
Extended Data Fig. 3 Schematics for magnon-mediated MESO logic device.
a, Same schematics duplicated from Fig. 1c. b, Modularized circuit schematics. The top module is the ferroelectric switch module, where the input voltage \({V}_{{{{\rm{in}}}}}^{c}\) switches the direction of the ferroelectric polarization PFE in the magnetoelectric layer. Such polarization change also affects the spin conductance Gse and Gsf of the ME layer. The leftmost and rightmost modules represent the spin Hall effect (SHE) process in the top SOC layer (injector) and the inverse spin Hall effect (ISHE) process in the bottom SOC layer (detector), respectively. The current-controlled spin current source \({I}_{{{{\rm{SHE}}}}}^{S}\) in the SHE module depends on the output charge current of the top SOC layer. Similarly, the current-controlled charge current source \({I}_{{{{\rm{ISHE}}}}}^{C}\) in the ISHE module depends on the output spin current of the bottom SOC layer. The parameters ηSHE and ηISHE represent the charge-to-spin and spin-to-charge current conversion rates, respectively. The module in the middle describes the magnon transport process in the ME layer, which is connected to the SHE and ISHE modules through the spin conductance at the interfaces between ME and SOC layers, denoted as GAFM-NM. c, Lossy Buffer logic simulation result for the equivalent circuit in b where the output follows the input pulse signal characteristics.
Extended Data Fig. 4 Structure, magnetization, ferroelectric domain structure measurements for La0.7Sr0.3MnO3/BiFeO3/SrIrO3 heterostructure.
a, HAADF image of La0.7Sr0.3MnO3/BiFeO3/SrIrO3 tri-layer, displaying atomically sharp interfaces and high crystal quality. b, HF etched and thermally annealed SrTiO3 substrate with atomic steps and terraces. c, Magnetization vs applied magnetic field (MH) measurement for La0.7Sr0.3MnO3/BiFeO3/SrIrO3, showing a coercivity of ~ 25 Oe and a saturation magnetization ~ 320 emu/cc. d, In-plane piezoresponse microscopy (PFM) image of the BiFeO3 layer. e, High resolution XRD 2θ-ω scan of the tri-layer.
Extended Data Fig. 5 Ferroelectric control of spin transport enabled by the interface chemistry.
a, A schematic for La0.7Sr0.3MnO3/BiFeO3 atomic stacking, where La0.7Sr0.3O-MnO2-BiO-FeO2 is stacked at the interface. b, A schematic for La0.7Sr0.3MnO3/BiFeO3 atomic stacking, where MnO2-La0.7Sr0.3O-FeO2-BiO is stacked at the interface. c, Corresponding piezoresponse for La0.7Sr0.3O-MnO2-BiO-FeO2 stacking (La0.7Sr0.3MnO3(12 nm)/BiFeO3(50 nm)), with top and bottom being phase and amplitude respectively. The solid line denotes the shifting of the piezoresponse curves to zero volts, indicating an upward ferroelectric polarization for La0.7Sr0.3O-MnO2-BiO-FeO2 stacking. d, Corresponding piezoresponse for MnO2-La0.7Sr0.3O-FeO2-BiO stacking (La0.7Sr0.3MnO3(12 nm)/BiFeO3(50 nm)), with the top and bottom being phase and amplitude respectively. The solid line denotes the shifting of the piezoresponse curves to zero volts, indicating a downward ferroelectric polarization for MnO2-La0.7Sr0.3O-FeO2-BiO stacking. e,f, An artistic illustration for upward and downward ferroelectric polarization. g, Spin orbit torque efficiency for BiFeO3 with different polarization states as a function of BiFeO3 thicknesses. The red (blue) data points represent the spin-orbit torque efficiency for La0.7Sr0.3MnO3/BiFeO3/SrIrO3, where BiFeO3 has an upward (downward) polarization. Data are presented as mean ± standard deviation over 4 devices on a sample.
Extended Data Fig. 6 Non-local voltage measured with sweeping external magnetic field.
dc non-local voltage as a function of applied magnetic field at room temperature. The applied dc current is 10 μA.
Extended Data Fig. 7 Electric field controlled non-local spin transport measurements with dc current input.
A positive electric field of 150 kV/cm and a negative electric field of -300 kV/cm are applied alternately, with dc non-local voltages measured in between the electric fields as shown in the measurement protocol. The corresponding non-local voltage between each electric field is shown below. Data are presented as mean ± standard deviation of over 50 data points on a device.
Extended Data Fig. 8 Power-dependent first-harmonic measurements in 71 degree domain BFO.
a,b,c, Nonlocal out-put voltage with electric fields (voltage) scan when applying current of 2uA (a), 3uA (b), 5uA (c). d, Summary of power-dependent out-put voltages. Inset shows the PFM image. Data are presented as mean ± standard deviation of over 50 data points on a device.
Extended Data Fig. 9 AFM and SQUID characterization.
a, An AFM image for SrIrO3 (15 nm) grown on YIG/GGG structure. b, An AFM image for SrIrO3 (15 nm) grown on NiFe2O4/STO structure. c, Magnetization as a function of temperature from 10 - 400 K, with a magnetic field of 1500 Oe applied in the plane. d, Magnetization as a function in-plane magnetic field at 300 K.
Extended Data Fig. 10 Non-local control experiments on NiFe2O4 (70 nm)/Pt (5 nm) and NiFe2O4 (70 nm)/SrIrO3 (15 nm).
First harmonic voltage signal is displayed in a and b for NiFe2O4/Pt and NiFe2O4/SrIrO3 respectively. An ac current with an amplitude of 100 μA and a frequency of 17 Hz was applied in a channel that is separated by 1 μm from the detection channel.
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Supplementary Figs. 1–9, discussion and Tables 1 and 2.
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Huang, X., Chen, X., Li, Y. et al. Manipulating chiral spin transport with ferroelectric polarization. Nat. Mater. (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-024-01854-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-024-01854-8
