Mechanisms of exchange bias with multiferroic BiFeO3 epitaxial thin films

Phys Rev Lett. 2008 Jan 11;100(1):017204. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.100.017204. Epub 2008 Jan 9.

Abstract

We have combined neutron scattering and piezoresponse force microscopy to show that the exchange field in CoFeB/BiFeO_{3} heterostructures scales with the inverse of the ferroelectric and antiferromagnetic domain size of the BiFeO3 films, as expected from Malozemoff's model of exchange bias extended to multiferroics. Accordingly, polarized neutron reflectometry reveals the presence of uncompensated spins in the BiFeO3 film at the interface with CoFeB. In view of these results, we discuss possible strategies to switch the magnetization of a ferromagnet by an electric field using BiFeO3.