Observation of magnetoelectric effect in Cr₂O₃/Pt/Co thin film system

We investigate the magnetic, electric, and magnetoelectric properties of a Cr2O3 thin film system that was deposited by radiofrequency magnetron sputtering. The temperature dependence of the magnetic susceptibility of our Cr2O3 film is similar to that of bulk Cr2O3, which indicates a small oxygen non-stoichiometry in the film. The Cr2O3 film exhibits high AC resistivity (∼109 Ω cm) and low leakage current (4.0 × 10−5 A/cm2 at E = 80 kV/cm). Finally, we demonstrate magnetoelectric switching of the exchange bias using the Cr2O3/Pt/Co all-thin-film system. By changing the direction of the electric field during the magnetoelectric field cooling process, the exchange bias field was changed symmetrically from −160 Oe to +160 Oe, which represents the switching of the antiferromagnetic domain of Cr2O3.