Electric Field and Structural Phase Transition Induced Magnetization Effects in BaTiO3-FeRh Heterostructures Probed using Polarized Neutron Reflectometry

The ability to change the magnetic state of a material with an electric field opens up a plethora of possible devices in spintronics and memory applications. A strong candidate material for such a control is FeRh, whose magneto-structural phase transition from antiferromagnetic (AFM) to ferromagnetic (FM) at T$\approx $350K, has shown to be controllably changed by an electric field when grown on ferroelectric BaTiO3 (BTO). It has been suggested that this shift is largely due to the -0.47{\%} in plane compressive strain induced by the piezoelectric BTO. Here we show a sharp repeatable change in magnetization as the system is heated/cooled through the tetragonal to orthorhombic (280-290K) and orthorhombic to rhombohedral (180-205K) crystalline phase transitions of BTO. To further characterize the effect polarized neutron reflectometry (PNR) was used to evolve the depth profile of magnetization in FeRh within the temperature vicinity of these transitions with and without the application of electric field.