Nanocomposite Oxide Thin Films For Novel Ionotronic Magnetoelectrics

离子电子器件依赖于基于离子的电荷效应，而不是/或除了电子之外。这个领域最近开始受到广泛的关注。它主要应用于氧化薄膜忆阻器（电阻取决于电压，可以在高电阻和低电阻的“开”和“关”状态之间切换）。这些设备对于制造电可切换存储器来说很有趣，但这些结构存在挑战，包括对设置过程的要求以及从一种薄膜到另一种薄膜的可变特性。在这个提议中，我们有一个新的想法，利用离子电子效应来创造一种新的电可开关存储器。垂直纳米复合薄膜中垂直界面上的离子缺陷在磁性过渡金属氧化物中电荷偶联。由于金属氧化物中的阳离子价取决于氧浓度或电荷状态，并且由于磁性取决于阳离子价，因此应该可以通过施加电场来打开和关闭磁性。该器件是一个离子电子磁电器件，它代表了一种全新的磁电RAM形式。磁电RAM是电场控制磁性，而不是电流控制其他形式的RAM，这是一个长期追求的目标。它提供了低功耗、非常高的密度、高速读写时间和非易失性的可能性。该技术有望实现低能耗、高性能的计算。然而，尽管迄今为止已经研究了一系列的结构和材料，但在结构形成的容易程度、稳定性、操作温度或磁电效应的大小方面，没有一种被证明是实用的。使离子电子磁电成为现实并非易事，它依赖于先进的材料科学——非常薄的薄膜的生长，在非常小的尺度（人类头发厚度的1/000）上高度有序的材料组合的创造，在室温附近沿界面纳米通道的电荷运动，哪些材料以兼容的方式结合在一起的知识，在原子尺度上的材料成像，等等。为了实现“实用磁电”的梦想，我们提出创造和测量新的结构，我们将使用独特的实验能力，并将与世界领先的研究人员合作。我们研究的出发点是在纳米尺度上，在完美的垂直纳米复合薄膜中创造离子界面通道的能力。我们还观察到离子确实可以电荷偶联到磁性质的第一个迹象。

Ionotronic devices rely on charge effects based on ions instead of/or in addition to electrons. The field has begun to gain very wide attention recently. It has been applied mainly to oxide thin film memristors (resistance depends on voltage and can be switched between an 'on' and an 'off' state of high and low resistance). These devices are interesting for creating electrically switchable memory, but there are challenges with these structures including the requirement of a setting process and variable properties from one film to another. In this proposal, we have the new idea to utilise ionotronic effects to create a new kind of electrically switchable memory. Here ionic defects at vertical interfaces in vertical nanocomposite thin films charge couple to magnetism in a magnetic transition metal oxide. Since the cation valences in the metal oxide depend on oxygen concentration or charge state, and since the magnetic properties depend on cation valences, it should be possible to switch magnetism on and off by applying an electric field. This device is an ionotronic magnetoelectric, and it represents a completely new form of magnetoelectric RAM. Magnetoelectric RAM is where electric field controls magnetism instead of electric current doing so as in other forms of RAM, and it is a long sought-after goal. It offers the possibility of low power, very high density, high-speed reading and writing times, and non-volatility. Low energy, high performance computing is promised with this technology. However, while a range of structures and materials have been studied to date, none has proved practical in terms of ease of structure formation, stability, temperature of operation, or size of magnetoelectric effect. Making the ionotronic magnetoelectric a practical reality is not trivial, and relies on advanced materials science - the growth of very thin films, the creation of highly ordered materials combinations on a very small scale (1/0000 the thickness of a human hair), the movement of charges along interface nanochannels near to room temperature, the knowledge of which materials combine together in a compatible way, the imaging of materials at the atomic scale, etc. To attain the 'practical magnetoelectric' dream we propose to create and measure new structures, we will use unique experimental capabilities and will also collaborate with world-leading researchers. Our starting point for the research is our ability to create, at the nanometre scale, ionic interface channels in perfect vertical nanocomposite films. We have also observed the first signs that ions can indeed charge couple to magnetic properties.