Magnetoelectric Control of Spin Waves and Domain Walls

Magnetoelectric control harnesses the intrinsic coupling between electric and magnetic orders to manipulate spin excitations and magnetic textures without reliance on electrical currents. In multiferroic composites and engineered heterostructures, an applied electric field alters the exchange stiffness, magnetic anisotropy or Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction, thereby tuning the dispersion and propagation of spin waves (magnons) and driving the motion or reconfiguration of domain walls. Such voltage-driven operations can minimise Joule heating and enable ultralow-power control of information carriers in magnonic interconnects, non-volatile memory elements and reconfigurable logic. Central to this field is the ability to tailor chiral interactions and anisotropy landscapes, yielding electric-field-induced reorientation of magnetisation and directional steering or amplification of spin-wave packets. The integration of these effects promises advances in wave-based computing, neuromorphic architectures and high-density data storage through energy-efficient, electrically programmable magnetic devices.

Research from Nature Portfolio

Electric-field control of magnon-induced magnetisation dynamics in multiferroics has been demonstrated in heterostructures with inhomogeneous magnetoelectric coupling. Excitation of spin waves generates a magnetoelectric torque that reorients the uniform magnetisation and drives domain-wall motion. By varying the applied voltage, both the angle of rotation and the velocity of the wall can be tuned linearly, achieving speeds several times faster than in zero field and opening avenues for low-dissipation domain-wall logic.

Ab initio and micromagnetic simulations of ultrathin ferromagnetic films have revealed that a perpendicular electric field can weaken the exchange interaction by up to 80%. This modulation leads to nearly twofold shifts in spin-wave wavenumber and group velocity, enabling local, reversible gating of magnon propagation. Such findings underpin the design of voltage-controlled magnonic waveguides and logic gates with high spatial resolution.

A concept for an electrically driven magneto-optical shutter utilises flexomagnetoelectric coupling at a domain wall in iron garnet films. A micro-tip applies a strong non-uniform electric field that shifts the wall by a substantial fraction of its width. By focusing a polarised laser beam on this moving wall, linear, nonlinear and tri-stable optical modulation regimes are realised, illustrating the potential for compact, electrically programmable photonic-spintronic devices.

Magnetoelectric Control of Spin Waves and Domain Walls publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in magnetoelectric control of spin waves and domain walls across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Magnetoelectric coupling: Interaction by which an electric field influences magnetic order or vice versa, enabling voltage control of spin configurations.

Spin waves (magnons): Collective excitations of the spin lattice in a magnet, behaving as quasiparticles that carry angular momentum and energy.

Magnetic domain walls: Transitional regions between domains of uniform magnetisation, whose position and structure can encode information.

Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction: A chiral exchange interaction arising from spin–orbit coupling and broken inversion symmetry, stabilising non-collinear spin textures.

Aharonov–Casher effect: A topological phase acquired by a moving magnetic moment in an electric field, analogous to the Aharonov–Bohm effect for charges in a magnetic field.

References

1. Electric-field-driven magnetic domain wall as a microscale magneto-optical shutter. Scientific Reports (2017).
2. Electric field control of magnon-induced magnetization dynamics in multiferroics. Scientific Reports (2016).
3. Spin-wave propagation steered by electric field modulated exchange interaction. Scientific Reports (2016).
4. Antiferromagnetic Spin Wave Amplification by Scattering in the Presence of Non-Uniform Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya Interaction. Materials (2024).
5. Controlled refraction and focusing of spin waves determined by the Aharonov-Casher effect. Physical Review B (2024).
6. Effect of “Refraction” of Magnetic Domain Boundaries at Electrical Inhomogeneities. JETP Letters (2023).