2013/02/20 by D. E. Parkes, Parkes, D. E., Shelford, L. R. +18
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Magnetic Properties and Applications #Magnetic properties of thin films #Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) #Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) #Multiferroics and related materials
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1302.5097
openalex publication_date 2013/02/20 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Multiferroic composite materials, consisting of coupled ferromagnetic and piezoelectric phases, are of great importance in the drive towards creating faster, smaller and more energy efficient devices for information and communications technologies. Such devices require thin ferromagnetic films with large magnetostriction and narrow microwave resonance linewidths. Both properties are often degraded, compared to bulk materials, due to structural imperfections and interface effects in the thin films. We report the development of single crystal thin films of Galfenol (Fe81Ga19) with magnetostriction as large as the best reported values for bulk material. This allows the magnetic anisotropy and microwave resonant frequency to be tuned by voltage-induced strain, with a larger magnetoelectric response and a narrower linewidth than any previously reported Galfenol thin films. The combination of these properties make the single crystal thin films excellent candidates for developing tunable devices for magnetic information storage, processing and microwave communications.