Large magnetoelectric coupling in multiferroic oxide heterostructures assembled via epitaxial lift-off.

Epitaxial films may be released from growth substrates and transferred to structurally and chemically incompatible substrates, but epitaxial films of transition metal perovskite oxides have not been transferred to electroactive substrates for voltage control of their myriad functional properties. Here we demonstrate good strain transmission at the incoherent interface between a strain-released film of epitaxially grown ferromagnetic La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 and an electroactive substrate of ferroelectric 0.68Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3 0.32PbTiO3 in a different crystallographic orientation. Our strain mediated magnetoelectric coupling compares well with respect to epitaxial heterostructures, where the epitaxy responsible for strong coupling can degrade film magnetization via strain and dislocations. Moreover, the electrical switching of magnetic anisotropy was repeatable and non volatile. High resolution magnetic vector maps reveal that micromagnetic behaviour was governed by electrically controlled strain and film microstructure. Our demonstration should permit the physical/chemical properties in strain-released epitaxial oxide films to be controlled using electroactive substrates to impart strain via non epitaxial interfaces.