Non-volatile ferroelectric gating of magnetotransport anisotropy in (Ga,Mn)(As,P)

We demonstrate charge-mediated and non-volatile control of anisotropic magnetoresistance (AMR) in a dilute magnetic semiconductor (Ga,Mn)(As, P) with an integrated polymer ferroelectric gate. The persistent electric field associated with switchable polarization in the ferroelectric layer is shown to be capable of strongly modulating the AMR magnitude. Furthermore, ferroelectric gate switching has a profound impact on the nature of AMR, changing the symmetry of the effect and enhancing/suppressing the crystalline component of AMR. Thus, in addition to a rather weak modulation of the ferromagnetic Curie temperature (4-5 K) reported previously, the ferroelectric gate can induce a strong deterministic switching of the magnetotransport anisotropy. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4731245]