Tailoring polymer-based magnetoelectrics for spintronics: Evaluating the converse effect

The use of magnetoelectric (ME) materials for switching the magnetization of spintronic devices is highly attractive due to their non-volatility, high-speed operation, reduced heat dissipation, miniaturization, and scalability. Despite the numerous reports in the literature focusing on the evaluation of the direct ME effect, the converse effect remains inadequately studied. This gap in knowledge significantly hinders the development of spintronic-related applications such as magnetic sensors, data storage, quantum computing and environmental/biomedical monitoring devices. Here we demonstrate tailored mechanical (Young's Modulus of 1.2 GPa), electric (conductivity of 3.4 × 10−6 S.m−1, dielectric constant (17 at 1 kHz), magnetic saturation (≈9 emu.g−1); piezoelectric (|d33|=11 pC.N−1), and converse ME (coefficient up to 6.3 mOe.cm.V−1: the highest reported on 1–3 composites and just 1 order of magnitude lower than the ones exhibited by ceramic-based 2–2 composites) properties obtained on P(VDF-TrFE)-based composites produced by solvent-casting. This work not only assesses various magnetostrictive fillers, such as CoFe2O4, Fe3O4, and NdFeB, but also advances the development of low-voltage-induced converse magnetoelectric (ME) coupling essential for high-performance spintronic device applications.