Effects of piezoelectric-poling-induced strain on the magnetic properties of FeBSiC/PMN-PT (001) multiferroic heterostructures

• Poling treatment induced a non-linear strain in FeBSiC/PMN-PT heterostructures.
• Non-volatile tuning of magnetization by poling electric field was demonstrated.
• 109°ferroelastic domain switching induced large shift in the magnetic anisotropy.
• FeBSiC/PMN-PT heterostructures are promising for magnetoelectric device applications.

Amorphous FeBSiC thin films were deposited on PMN-PT (Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-PbTiO3)(001) single crystal substrate by DC magnetron sputtering. The effects of piezoelectric-poling-induced strain on the magnetic properties of the FeBSiC/PMN-PT heterostructures were investigated. Studies indicated that the non-linear strains in PMN-PT were induced by poling at different electric fields, with tensile strain for out-of-plane direction and compressive strain for in-plane direction, respectively. Moreover, the in-plane compressive strain increased the saturation magnetization of the FeBSiC thin film, while the out-of-plane tensile strain decreased it. These results could be attributed to the 109° ferroelastic domain switching at applied electric field, which induced large variation in magnetic anisotropy due to magnetoelectric coupling in the FeBSiC/PMN-PT heterostructures. This study demonstrates the non-volatile tuning of magnetism by non-linear strains of lattice induced by the piezoelectric-poling, which shows promising applications for energy efficient magnetoelectric devices.