UC Berkeley

The ability to control magnetic vortex is critical for their potential applications in spintronic devices. Traditional methods including magnetic field, spin-polarized current etc. have been used to flip the core and/or reverse circulation of vortex. However, it is challenging for deterministic electric-field control of the single magnetic vortex textures with time-reversal broken symmetry and no planar magnetic anisotropy. Here it is reported that a deterministic reversal of single magnetic vortex circulation can be driven back and forth by a space-varying strain in multiferroic heterostructures, which is controlled by using a bi-axial pulsed electric field. Phase-field simulation reveals the mechanism of the emerging magnetoelastic energy with the space variation and visualizes the reversal pathway of the vortex. This deterministic electric-field control of the single magnetic vortex textures demonstrates a new approach to integrate the low-dimensional spin texture into the magnetoelectric thin film devices with low energy consumption.