Ultralow Voltage Control of Magnetism*

The key to integrating the concepts of spintronics into conventional nanoelectronics lies with the ability to control the magnetic order in nanoscale devices. With the continuous shrinkage of integrated circuits, the energy efficiency required to control these tiny magnets as power dissipation becomes more and more important. Over the past decades, the oxide community has been exploring the materials that can provide the opportunities to control magnetism. Among the large investigated materials, multiferroics might be one of the most promising material family. Multiferroics are the materials which possess at least two order of parameters, particularly, the coexistence of ferroelectricity(P) and magnetism(M), and exhibit coupling from one to another. In this talk, I will demonstrate an ultra-low-voltage (<500 mV) and non-volatile manipulation of ferromagnetism at room temperature via the heterostructure of spin valves on a multiferroic layer, BiFeO₃(BFO). Finally, I will conclude this talk with a summary of current challenges and future direction of multiferroics, especially BFO, toward the low-power electronics.