The projects aims to control magnetoelectric and magnetoionic effects by light.
There is a huge interest on research of new materials able to perform upgraded computational functionalities in an energy-efficient manner to be integrated in electronic devices during the next digital revolution. Energy-efficient computing will allow to keep environmentally suitable the increasing demand of devices for diverse technologies, such as 5G, internet of things, cloud storage, neuromorphic computing, etc. The study of light-control/light-enhanced magnetoelectric and magnetoionic effects will help on this research line. We plan to study archetypical strain-mediated magnetoelectric systems where reversible magnetoelectric effects are known to occur. In these systems, light modifies the strain state as a by-product of the bulk photovoltaic effect, present in ferroelectric or any non-centrosymmetric material, combined with its piezoelectric response. In addition, we will also stimulate magnetoionic materials with light. In these systems, electric field is used to induce ionic motion and therefore change the magnetic material properties. We will study epitaxial oxide films as ionic conductors. Oxygen transport triggered by light will result in a change of the charge state or oxidation state at the interface with the magnetic material, as an alternative to application of external electric voltage.
