Magneto-Electric Coupling in a Multiferroic Tunnel Junction Functioning as a Magnetic-Field-Effect Transistor

A nanoscaled multilayered composite structure made of a ferroelectric tunnel capacitor attached to a magnetic sensor layer is studied using a Landau-Ginzburg thermodynamic model. The relation between the polarization and the mechanical load induced by the magnetic signal via electrostriction is established. Our results suggest that the spin-flip-induced resistance change of such a structure may reach hundreds of percents to orders of magnitude, which is sufficiently strong to allow its use as a magnetic-field-effect transistor.