Epitaxial integration of a perpendicularly magnetized ferrimagnetic metal on a ferroelectric oxide for electric-field control

Ferrimagnets, which contain the advantages of both ferromagnets (detectable moments) and antiferromagnets (ultrafast spin dynamics), have recently attracted great attention. Here, we report the optimization of epitaxial growth of a tetragonal perpendicularly magnetized ferrimagnet Mn₂Ga on MgO. Electrical transport, magnetic properties and the anomalous Hall effect (AHE) were systematically studied. Furthermore, we successfully integrated high-quality epitaxial ferrimagnetic Mn₂Ga thin films onto ferroelectric 0.7PbMg_1/3Nb_2/3O₃–0.3PbTiO₃ single crystals with a MgO buffer layer. It was found that the AHE of such a ferrimagnet can be effectively modulated by a small electric field over a large temperature range in a nonvolatile manner. This work thus demonstrates the great potential of ferrimagnets for developing high-density and low-power spintronic devices. Graphical abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.]