A continuous reorientation and an abrupt flip to a canted structure in the magnetization of stripe domains are observed under the influence of an electric field in an yttrium-iron-garnet (YIG)/lead-zirconate-titanate (PZT) bilayer. Magneto-optic techniques have been utilized for the observation of the domain structure and the magnetization flip. It is found that electrically generated mechanical stress in PZT induces an uniaxial anisotropy field in YIG, which is large enough to initially cause a gradual change in the domain magnetization and then a transition from out-of-plane orientation to a canted state for a threshold electric field. Additional evidence for the spin flip has been obtained from data on the modulation of intensity of linearly polarized light due to diffraction by the stripe domains. A comprehensive theory for the voltage-induced magnetization flip is discussed and compared with the data. The magnetic transitions and the theory discussed here are of interests for electric-field-controlled magneto-optic and spintronic devices.

• Received 23 November 2012

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.87.134417