Magnetoelectric effects in oxide magnetic tunnel junctions with ferroelectric barriers

Functional properties of magnetic tunnel junction can be enhanced by employing a ferroelectric material as the barrier layer. We report on La0.7Sr0.3MnO3(LSMO)/BaTiO3(BTO)/LSMO magnetic tunnel junctions(MTJ) with BTO ferroelectric tunnel barrier. Switching BTO ferroelectric polarization influences the tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) achieving two different r resistance states for each magnetic state (parallel or antiparallel) of the magnetization of the electrodes . The voltage dependence of the differential conductance obtained from IV curves displays oscillations whose period depends on the BTO electric polarization. This unusual behavior could be related to the presence of an induced magnetic moment in BTO ferroelectric barrier detected by XMCD measurements. These results reveal that spin polarization, and its tunneling conductance can be electrically tuned through reversal of the ferroelectric polarization of the barrier.