Electrically-Tuned Strain Fields in a Ferroelectric/Ferromagnetic (PZT/LSMO) Heterostructure

Manipulating the magnetic properties of complex materials can be achieved by varying the temperature or composition (doping), but alternative methods like strain-induced modification of magnetic domains has been less explored. Nanostructures can accommodate larger values of strain, and can be applied using various epitaxial growth methods and dynamically altered by an external stimulus. Therefore, lattice strain can be used as a tuning parameter to modify magnetic properties on the nanoscale. To explore this possibility, we investigated the response from multiferroric materials that uses an intermediary strain field as a coupling mechanism. Specifically, we performed x-ray nanodiffraction to spatially resolve the coupled strain field between PZT and LSMO, a ferroelectric/ferromagnetic heterostructure, as a function of an applied electric field in the ferroelectric PZT layer. Our results reveal this interfacial strain transfer with 30nm spatial resolution and uncover the details of confined size effects associated with nanoscale structural domains.