Research on Ferroelectric and Spintronic Nanoscale Materials

A special issue of Nanomaterials (ISSN 2079-4991). This special issue belongs to the section "Nanoelectronics, Nanosensors and Devices".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (10 March 2025) | Viewed by 2674

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
School of Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, Xidian University, Xi'an 710126, China
Interests: hafnium-oxide-based ferroelectrics; polar topological domain in ferroelectrics; electric control of magnetization swtiching in multiferroics
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Guest Editor
School of Physics, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China
Interests: ferroelectrics; spintronics; magnetic materials; multiferroics; thin tilms and nanotechnology

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Ferroelectric nanoscale materials have attracted substantial interest due to not only fundamental physical phenomena that are distinct from the bulk, including exotic domain configurations, such as flux-closure domains, polar vortex, and polar skyrmions, but also potential applications in reconfigurable ferroelectric memory devices. Notably, apart from conventional perovskite-based ferroelectrics (e.g., BaTiO3, (Pb, Zr)TiO3), fluorite-structured HfO2-based ferroelectrics are becoming a research hot topic due to their excellent compatibility with complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor technology (CMOS) and robust ferroelectricity at the nanoscale. Meanwhile, spintronic nanoscale materials are fundamentally fascinating because scaling down the dimension of a magnet to nanometers produces diversities of exotic magnetic states, such as a single domain, vortex domain, magnetic skyrmions and so on, which is promising for encoding binary or multiple-state data in novel spin memories. Furthermore, integrating ferromagnetic and ferroelectric materials via interfacial magnetoelectric coupling in nanoscale multiferroic heterostructures provides a promising energy-efficient and high-density storage avenue in future spintronics from the point of view of technological potential.

The present Special Issue of Nanomaterials aims to presenting the current state of the art in the use of ferroelectric and spintronic nanoscale materials, a field that has blossomed since the 2010s, with seminal discoveries such as novel physical phenomena, including polar topological domains, exotic ferroelectric skyrmions, and magnetic skyrmions, and their potential applications, containing ferroelectric memory and low-power and high-density magnetoelectric random memory and logic devices driven by electric field rather than electric current control of magnetization reversal. In the present Special Issue, we have invited contributions from leading groups in the field with the aim of providing a balanced view of the current state of the art in this discipline.

This Special Issue is focused on ferroelectric and spintronic nanoscale materials. Topics of interest of this Special Issue include, but are not limited to:

  1. Fabrication and characterization of ferroelectric and spintronic nanoscale materials;
  2. Novel topological domains in ferroelectric and spintronic nanoscale materials;
  3. Stabilization of metastable HfO2-based ferroelectric phase;
  4. Domain structures and domain dynamics;
  5. Prototypical ferroelectric/spintronic memory and logic devices.

Dr. Renci Peng
Dr. Aitian Chen
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • ferroelectric and spintronic nanoscale materials
  • novel topological domains
  • HfO2-based ferroelectrics
  • stabilization of metastable ferroelectric phase
  • domain structures and domain dynamics
  • ferroelectric fatigue
  • ferroelectric/spintronic memory and logic devices

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

8 pages, 2559 KiB  
Article
Dual-Layer Anomalous Hall Effect Sensor for Enhanced Accuracy and Range in Magnetic Field Detection
by Sitong An, Lvkang Shen, Tianyu Liu, Yan Wang, Qiuyang Han and Ming Liu
Nanomaterials 2025, 15(7), 527; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano15070527 - 31 Mar 2025
Viewed by 25
Abstract
This study introduces a method aimed at enhancing both the accuracy and the range of magnetic field sensors, which are two critical parameters, in a novel NiCo2O4-based anomalous Hall effect sensor. To fine-tune the linear range of the sensor, [...] Read more.
This study introduces a method aimed at enhancing both the accuracy and the range of magnetic field sensors, which are two critical parameters, in a novel NiCo2O4-based anomalous Hall effect sensor. To fine-tune the linear range of the sensor, we introduced epitaxial strain using a MgAl2O4 cover layer, which significantly influenced the strain-modulated magnetic anisotropy. A NiCo2O4/MgAl2O4/NiCo2O4/MgAl2O4 heterostructure was further constructed, achieving differentiation in the material characteristics across both upper and lower NiCo2O4 layers through the modulation of thickness and strain. A dual-layer Hall bar was designed to enhance the integration of the sensor, offering varied detection ranges. This approach enabled the realization of ultrahigh sensitivity, measuring 10,000 V/(AT) within a ±0.1 mT range, and a competitive sensitivity of 60 V/(AT) within a ±5 mT range. By reducing the thickness of the top NiCo2O4 layer, an ultra-wide measurement range of ±1000 mT was also achieved. These results highlight the considerable promise of NiCo2O4-based anomalous Hall effect devices as compact, multi-range tools in the domain of magnetic sensing technology. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Research on Ferroelectric and Spintronic Nanoscale Materials)
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21 pages, 8014 KiB  
Article
Harnessing Magnetic Properties for Precision Thermal Control of Vortex Domain Walls in Constricted Nanowires
by Mohammed Al Bahri and Salim Al-Kamiyani
Nanomaterials 2025, 15(5), 372; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano15050372 - 27 Feb 2025
Viewed by 359
Abstract
This study investigates the thermal pinning and depinning behaviors of vortex domain walls (VWs) in constricted magnetic nanowires, focusing on the influence of intrinsic magnetic properties on VW stability under thermal stress. Using micromagnetic simulations, we analyze the roles of saturation magnetization (Ms), [...] Read more.
This study investigates the thermal pinning and depinning behaviors of vortex domain walls (VWs) in constricted magnetic nanowires, focusing on the influence of intrinsic magnetic properties on VW stability under thermal stress. Using micromagnetic simulations, we analyze the roles of saturation magnetization (Ms), uniaxial magnetic anisotropy (Ku), and nanowire geometry in determining VW thermal stability. The modeled nanowire has dimensions of 200 nm (width), 30 nm (thickness), and a 50 nm constriction length, chosen based on the dependence of VW formation on nanowire geometry. Our results show that increasing Ms and Ku enhances VW pinning, while thermal fluctuations at higher temperatures promote VW depinning. We demonstrate that temperature and magnetic parameters significantly impact VW structural stability, offering insights for designing high-reliability nanowire-based memory devices. These findings contribute to optimizing nanowire designs for thermally stable, energy-efficient spintronic memory systems. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Research on Ferroelectric and Spintronic Nanoscale Materials)
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13 pages, 3013 KiB  
Article
Thickness-Dependent Gilbert Damping and Soft Magnetism in Metal/Co-Fe-B/Metal Sandwich Structure
by Yimo Fan, Jiawei Wang, Aitian Chen, Kai Yu, Mingmin Zhu, Yunxin Han, Sen Zhang, Xianqing Lin, Haomiao Zhou, Xixiang Zhang and Qiang Lin
Nanomaterials 2024, 14(7), 596; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano14070596 - 28 Mar 2024
Viewed by 1546
Abstract
The achievement of the low Gilbert damping parameter in spin dynamic modulation is attractive for spintronic devices with low energy consumption and high speed. Metallic ferromagnetic alloy Co-Fe-B is a possible candidate due to its high compatibility with spintronic technologies. Here, we report [...] Read more.
The achievement of the low Gilbert damping parameter in spin dynamic modulation is attractive for spintronic devices with low energy consumption and high speed. Metallic ferromagnetic alloy Co-Fe-B is a possible candidate due to its high compatibility with spintronic technologies. Here, we report thickness-dependent damping and soft magnetism in Co-Fe-B films sandwiched between two non-magnetic layers with Co-Fe-B films up to 50 nm thick. A non-monotonic variation of Co-Fe-B film damping with thickness is observed, which is in contrast to previously reported monotonic trends. The minimum damping and the corresponding Co-Fe-B thickness vary significantly among the different non-magnetic layer series, indicating that the structure selection significantly alters the relative contributions of various damping mechanisms. Thus, we developed a quantitative method to distinguish intrinsic from extrinsic damping via ferromagnetic resonance measurements of thickness-dependent damping rather than the traditional numerical calculation method. By separating extrinsic and intrinsic damping, each mechanism affecting the total damping of Co-Fe-B films in sandwich structures is analyzed in detail. Our findings have revealed that the thickness-dependent damping measurement is an effective tool for quantitatively investigating different damping mechanisms. This investigation provides an understanding of underlying mechanisms and opens up avenues for achieving low damping in Co-Fe-B alloy film, which is beneficial for the applications in spintronic devices design and optimization. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Research on Ferroelectric and Spintronic Nanoscale Materials)
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