Abstract:
Magnetic and ferroelectric materials are in the heart of the modern science and
technology. Magnetic materials with switchable spontaneous magnetization (M) driven by
an external magnetic field (H) have been widely used in data-storage industries such as
magnetic random-access memories (MRAM.S.). The sensors and actuators in the electronic
devices greatly depend on ferroelectric materials with spontaneous polarization reversible
upon an external electric field (E). The coupled strain and polarization in the ferroelectric
materials allow elastic energy to be converted into electric energy or vice versa. Another
major application of ferroelectric material is ferroelectric random-access memories
(FeRAM.S.) which is non-volatile and has high-speed memory access, superior feature to
the semiconductor flash memories. Towards device miniaturization, combining more than
one functionality in a single component is highly desirable. For this reason, it is a natural
tendency that combining magnetic and ferroelectric properties in a single unit can
generate the new generation memory devices, smart sensors and actuators. The
coexistence of more than one ferroic ordering in a single device can in fact provide a
synergistic effect which can create even new functionality.
