Abstract
The spintronics devices based on electric field is a key challenge today and the exchange bias effect is the basic structure used in these devices. We have studied the electric field control of annealed Co/CoO exchange bias system fabricated on the (011)-Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O-3-PbTiO3 piezoelectric substrate. The Co/CoO heterostructure was cooled down from above the Neel temperature (T-N=291K) down to 15K in the presence of electric and magnetic fields; the sample was cooled every time for each electric field measurement in order to avoid the training effect. The exchange bias effect was found to increase by 44% at the highest electric field value of 8 kV/cm measured at 15 K. The electric field tuning of exchange bias is attributed to the different magnetization reversal processes for left and right branches of magnetic hysteresis loop. Our results reinforce the possibility for the use of electric field as a tool to control the future spintronics devices. (C) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.