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.