Voltage-Gated 90° Switching of Bulk Perpendicular Magnetic Anisotropy in Ferrimagnets

Unraveling the mechanism behind bulk perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) in amorphous rare earth-transition metal films has proven challenging. This is largely due to the inherent complexity of the amorphous structure and the entangled potential origins arising from microstructure and atomic structure factors. Here, we present an approach wherein the magneto-electric effect is harnessed to induce 90° switching of bulk PMA in Tb–Co films to in-plane directions by applying voltages of only −1.2 V. This manipulation is achieved by voltage-driven insertion of hydrogen atoms into interstitial sites between Tb and Co atoms, which serves as a perturbation to the local atomic structure. Using angle-dependent X-ray magnetic circular dichroism, we find that the anisotropy switching originates from the distortion of the crystal field around Tb, which reorients the alignment of Tb orbital moments. Initially aligned along Tb–Co bonding directions, the easy magnetization axis undergoes reorientation and switches by 90°, as substantiated by ab initio calculations. Our study not only concludes the atomic origin of Tb–Co atom bonding configuration in shaping bulk PMA but also establishes the groundwork for electrically programmable ferrimagnetic spintronics, such as controlling domain wall motion and programming artificial spin textures.