Non-volatile, electric control of magnetism in Mn-substituted ZnO

Abstract

We show that the magnetic properties of a dilute semiconductor oxide can be altered in a reversible and non-volatile manner by the application of an electric field. The selected ferromagnetic oxide was manganese-substituted zinc oxide. Bipolar resistive memory switching was induced in the film sandwiched between two metallic electrodes. The bistable switching of the resistive state was accompanied by a bistable switching of the magnetic moment. The scalability of the system was investigated by fabricating devices with lateral size down to 400 nm.