Application of Electric Fields in Controling the Properties of Ferromagnetic Materials

Dear Colleagues,

Magnetic devices play a fundamental role in modern technology. They are essential components in different fields, such as micro- and nano-mechanical systems, magnetic memories like computer hard disks, magnetoresistive random access memory, and innovative spintronic systems. To give an idea, in information technology, magnetic materials are utilized to store an enormous amount of data, encoding them via different magnetization states established by applying an external magnetic field. External magnetic fields, usually generated via electric currents (i.e., through electromagnets or spin–torque effects), have the problem of dissipating a large part of the energy by the Joule effect. To reduce power consumption, an innovative and promising approach to controlling the properties of magnetic materials can be used in an electric field.

The strategies to achieve control of the magnetic properties via an electric field are based on the magnetoelectric effect. So far, significant results have been obtained in modulating various parameters of magnetic materials, including coercivity, magnetic moment, magnetic anisotropy, remanent magnetization, exchange bias, and topological spin structure, using an electric field. A typical approach is to exploit the strain-mediated magnetoelectric coupling or the surface charge accumulation in hybrid material, usually obtained by combining magnetic and ferroelectric phases (i.e., capable of providing electric polarization and strain upon application of an electric field) in hybrid materials. Aside from charge accumulation and strain, the electric field can induce changes in the oxidation state in ferromagnetic metallic alloys by using liquid or solid (i.e., ionically conductive oxide buffer layers) electrolytes. According to the polarity of the ions and the direction of the applied field, ions migrate in and out of the material. Various types of ions have been utilized and documented in the existing literature, such as O^2-, H⁺, Li⁺, and N^3-.

Thus, using an electric field not only makes it possible to address the energy efficiency problem but also to overcome the paradigm for which the properties of magnetic materials are unchangeable after they are fabricated.

Given the ever-growing interest of the scientific community in this area and the possible applications of these materials spanning from non-volatile memories to neuromorphic computing, we aim to report all the latest developments in this Special Issue focused on the application of electric fields in controlling the magnetic and transport properties of materials.

Dr. Matteo Cialone
Dr. Marine Schott
Dr. Federico Caglieris
Guest Editors

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• ferromagnetism
• multiferroics
• magnetoelectric effect
• magnetoelectric coupling
• magneto-ionic
• ionic liquid gating
• solid-state electrolyte
• ion migration