Ferroelastic Strain-Mediated Nonvolatile Tuning of Perpendicular Magnetic Anisotropy in (Co/Pt)₃/(1 1 1) Pb(Mg_1/3Nb_2/3)O₃-PbTiO₃ Multiferroic Heterostructures

Nonvolatile control of perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) is of great technological importance for low-power spintronic devices. In this study, we successfully achieved ferroelastic strain-mediated nonvolatile tuning of PMA at room temperature in (Co/Pt)₃/(1 1 1) Pb(Mg_1/3Nb_2/3)O₃-PbTiO₃ multiferroic heterostructures. Electric field control of magnetic anisotropy was qualitatively studied by ferromagnetic resonance. The anisotropy could be reversibly flipped between low and high perpendicular states by electric field impulses. The application of a negative electric field to positively poled Pb(Mg_1/3Nb_2/3)O₃-PbTiO₃ resulted in a significant enhancement of PMA up to 250 Oe, in which nonvolatile modulation contributed more than 150 Oe. The nonvolatile behavior is due to non-180° ferroelastic domain switching in (1 1 1) Pb(Mg_1/3Nb_2/3)O₃-PbTiO₃ as revealed by X-ray diffraction. Ferroelastic domain switching in multiferroic heterostructures is an effective way to nonvolatilely modulate PMA that will enable the realization of high-density and power-efficient spintronic memory.