Magnetoelectric and multiferroic properties of some perovskite oxides and other materials

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.