Staff directory Francisco Sánchez Férez

Publications

2017

• Electric-Field-Adjustable Time-Dependent Magnetoelectric Response in Martensitic FeRh Alloy

  Fina I., Quintana A., Padilla-Pantoja J., Martí X., Macià F., Sánchez F., Foerster M., Aballe L., Fontcuberta J., Sort J. ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces; 9 (18): 15577 - 15582. 2017. 10.1021/acsami.7b00476. IF: 7.504

  Steady or dynamic magnetoelectric response, selectable and adjustable by only varying the amplitude of the applied electric field, is found in a multiferroic FeRh/PMN-PT device. In-operando time-dependent structural, ferroelectric, and magnetoelectric characterizations provide evidence that, as in magnetic shape memory martensitic alloys, the observed distinctive magnetoelectric responses are related to the time-dependent relative abundance of antiferromagnetic-ferromagnetic phases in FeRh, unbalanced by voltage-controlled strain. This flexible magnetoelectric response can be exploited not only for energy-efficient memory operations but also in other applications, where multilevel and/or transient responses are required. © 2017 American Chemical Society.

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• Hidden Magnetic States Emergent under Electric Field, in A Room Temperature Composite Magnetoelectric Multiferroic

  Clarkson J.D., Fina I., Liu Z.Q., Lee Y., Kim J., Frontera C., Cordero K., Wisotzki S., Sanchez F., Sort J., Hsu S.L., Ko C., Aballe L., Foerster M., Wu J., Christen H.M., Heron J.T., Schlom D.G., Salahuddin S., Kioussis N., Fontcuberta J., Marti X., Ramesh R. Scientific Reports; 7 (1, 15460) 2017. 10.1038/s41598-017-13760-y. IF: 4.259

  The ability to control a magnetic phase with an electric field is of great current interest for a variety of low power electronics in which the magnetic state is used either for information storage or logic operations. Over the past several years, there has been a considerable amount of research on pathways to control the direction of magnetization with an electric field. More recently, an alternative pathway involving the change of the magnetic state (ferromagnet to antiferromagnet) has been proposed. In this paper, we demonstrate electric field control of the Anomalous Hall Transport in a metamagnetic FeRh thin film, accompanying an antiferromagnet (AFM) to ferromagnet (FM) phase transition. This approach provides us with a pathway to "hide" or "reveal" a given ferromagnetic region at zero magnetic field. By converting the AFM phase into the FM phase, the stray field, and hence sensitivity to external fields, is decreased or eliminated. Using detailed structural analyses of FeRh films of varying crystalline quality and chemical order, we relate the direct nanoscale origins of this memory effect to site disorder as well as variations of the net magnetic anisotropy of FM nuclei. Our work opens pathways toward a new generation of antiferromagnetic - ferromagnetic interactions for spintronics. © 2017 The Author(s).

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2016

• Monolithic integration of room-temperature multifunctional BaTiO 3 -CoFe 2 O 4 epitaxial heterostructures on Si(001)

  Scigaj M., Dix N., Gázquez J., Varela M., Fina I., Domingo N., Herranz G., Skumryev V., Fontcuberta J., Sánchez F. Scientific Reports; 6 ( 31870) 2016. 10.1038/srep31870. IF: 5.228

  The multifunctional (ferromagnetic and ferroelectric) response at room temperature that is elusive in single phase multiferroic materials can be achieved in a proper combination of ferroelectric perovskites and ferrimagnetic spinel oxides in horizontal heterostructures. In this work, lead-free CoFe 2 O 4 /BaTiO 3 bilayers are integrated with Si(001) using LaNiO 3 /CeO 2 /YSZ as a tri-layer buffer. They present structural and functional properties close to those achieved on perovskite substrates: the bilayers are fully epitaxial with extremely flat surface, and exhibit robust ferromagnetism and ferroelectricity at room temperature. © The Author(s) 2016.

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