Magnetic memory cells associated with the stress-mediated magnetoelectric effect promise extremely low bit-writing energies. Most investigations have focused on the process of writing information in memory cells, and very few on readout schemes. The usual assumption is that the readout will be achieved using magnetoresistive structures such as Giant Magneto-Resistive stacks or Magnetic Tunnel Junctions. Since the writing energy is very low in the magnetoelectric systems, the readout energy using magnetoresistive approaches becomes non negligible. Incidentally, the magneto-electric interaction itself contains the potentiality of the readout of the information encoded in the magnetic subsystem. In this letter, the principle of magnetoelectric readout of the information by an electric field in a composite multiferroic heterostructure is considered theoretically and demonstrated experimentally using [N×(TbCo2/FeCo)]/[Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3](1−x)−[PbTiO3]x stress-mediated ME heterostructures.

The motion of a ferromagnetic domain wall in nanodevices is usually induced by means of external magnetic fields or polarized currents. Here, we demonstrate the possibility to reversibly control the position of a N eel domain wall in a ferromagnetic nanostripe through a uniform mechanical stress. The latter is generated by an electro-active substrate combined with the nanostripe in a multiferroic heterostructure. We develop a model describing the magnetization distribution in the ferromagnetic material, properly taking into account the magnetoelectric coupling. Through its numerical implementation, we obtain the relationship between the electric field applied to the piezoelectric substrate and the position of the magnetic domain wall in the nanostripe. As an example, we analyze a structure composed of a PMN-PT substrate and a TbCo 2 /FeCo composite nanostripe.