%0 Journal Article
%K Electric fields
%K Nanotechnology
%K Ferroelectricity
%K Switching
%K Phase-field simulation
%K Magnetoelectric couplings
%K Ferroelastic switching
%K Magnetoelectric devices
%K Electric polarization
%K Low-symmetry materials
%K Multiple order parameters
%K Stress-induced instabilities
%A S.H Baek
%A H.W Jang
%A C.M Folkman
%A Y.L Li
%A B Winchester
%A J.X Zhang
%A Q He
%A Y.H Chu
%A C.T Nelson
%A M.S Rzchowski
%A X.Q Pan
%A Ramamoorthy Ramesh
%A L.Q Chen
%A C.B Eom
%B Nature Materials
%D 2010
%G eng
%I Nature Publishing Group
%P 309-314
%R 10.1038/nmat2703
%T Ferroelastic switching for nanoscale non-volatile magnetoelectric devices
%V 9
%X Multiferroics, where (anti-) ferromagnetic, ferroelectric and ferroelastic order parameters coexist1-5, enable manipulation of magnetic ordering by an electric field through switching of the electric polarization 6-9. It has been shown that realization of magnetoelectric coupling in a single-phase multiferroic such as BiFeO3 requires ferroelastic (71°, 109°) rather than ferroelectric (180°) domain switching 6. However, the control of such ferroelastic switching in a single-phase system has been a significant challenge as elastic interactions tend to destabilize small switched volumes, resulting in subsequent ferroelastic back-switching at zero electric field, and thus the disappearance of non-volatile information storage. Guided by our phase-field simulations, here we report an approach to stabilize ferroelastic switching by eliminating the stress-induced instability responsible for back-switching using isolated monodomain BiFeO3 islands. This work demonstrates a critical step to control and use non-volatile magnetoelectric coupling at the nanoscale. Beyond magnetoelectric coupling, it provides a framework for exploring a route to control multiple order parameters coupled to ferroelastic order in other low-symmetry materials. © 2010 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved.