A magnetoelectric logic gate

We present a strain‐mediated magnetoelectric logic (ME‐logic) gate, with electric field directly used as the logical input/output. The basic building block of the ME‐logic device is a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) attached to a ferroelectric layer, in which the resistance of the MTJ unit can be modulated by an electric field applied to the ferroelectric layer. The ME‐logic device combines the advantage of conventional MTJ‐based logic devices, while avoiding their problems associated with generating high local magnetic fields required in the switching circuits. Two possible schemes of such ME‐logic devices are introduced, i.e., either operated as a logic NOR, NOT or NAND gate, or selected to realize the logical NOR, NOT or NAND function at run‐time. magnified image Sequence of a magnetoelectric logic gate. (© 2010 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)