Prof. Chun-Gang Duan [from East China Normal University, China]

Title: New routes to the electric-field control of magnetism

Time: 2:00 - 3:00pm, April 21, Tuesday
Place: Conference room 201, Building 6, HPSTAR (Shanghai)
Host: Xiao-Jia Chen

Abstract:

In this talk I will first report our recent progresses in the first-principles studies on the new routes to the electric-field control of magnetism. We demonstrate that electric-field can be used directly or indirectly to change the magnetic properties of the material, through surface or interface magnetoelectric effect [1,2]. In addition, by replacing normal insulating layer with ferroelectrics in magnetic tunnel junctions, we could design multiferroic tunnel junctions which combine the advantages of magnetic and ferroelectric tunnel junctions [3]. Furthermore, electric-field can also be used to control the magnetic orderings of multiferroic materials [4], the Rashba splitting of noble metal surface [5], and so on. These results reveal exciting prospects of multiferroics and magnetoelectric materials for realistic application in multifunctional and low energy-cost electronic devices. Finally I will also introduce some realistic or experimental progresses in our lab towards this direction [6,7].

References:

1. C.-G. Duan‚ S. S. Jaswal‚ E. Y. Tsymbal‚ Phys. Rev. Lett. 97‚ 047201 (2006).

2. C.-G. Duan‚ J. P. Velev‚ R. F. Sabirianov‚ Z. Zhu‚ J. Chu‚ S. S. Jaswal‚ and E. Y. Tsymbal‚ Phys. Rev. Lett. 101‚ 137201 (2008).

3. J. P. Velev‚ C.-G. Duan‚ J. D. Burton‚ A. Smogunov‚ M. K. Niranjan‚ E. Tosatti‚ S. S. Jaswal‚ and E. Y. Tsymbal‚ Nano Lett. 9‚ 427 (2009).

4. H.-C. Ding, C.-G. Duan, Europhys. Lett., 97, 57007 (2012).

5. S.-J. Gong, C.-G. Duan, Y. Zhu, Z. Zhu, J. Chu, Phys. Rev. B 87, 035403 (2013).

6. W. Zhu, D. Xiao, Y. Liu, S. J. Gong, and C.-G. Duan, Sci. Rep. 4, 4117 (2014).

7. R. Huang, H.-C. Ding, W.-I. Liang, Y.-C. Gao, X.-D. Tang, Q. He, C.-G. Duan, Z. Zhu, J. Chu, C. A. J. Fisher, T. Hirayama, Y. Ikuhara and Y.-H. Chu. Adv. Func. Mater. 24, 793-799 (2014).

Biography of the Speaker:

Prof. Chun-Gang Duan earned his Ph.D. degree in theoretical physics from Institute of Physics, Beijing, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China, in 1998. Then he worked in University of Nebraska, USA, from 1998 to 2007. In 2008, he joined Department of Electronic Engineering, East China Normal University as full professor. He is now the director of key lab of polar materials and devices, Ministry of Education. He has published more than 90 papers in peer-reviewed journals, with more than 2500 SCI citations. His group is currently working on multiferroics and magnetoelectric materials.