Multiferroics are materials that exhibit more than one prominent "ferroic" property, such as ferromagnetism and ferroelectricity. One of their most advantageous features is that they allow engineers to control their magnetic states with electric fields or vice versa, due to an effect known as magnetoelectric coupling.
Multiferroics could enable the development of numerous cutting-edge devices, ranging from low-power electronics to spintronic devices, nonvolatile memory components, highly sensitive sensors and solar panels. So far, however, achieving a strong coupling between their electric and magnetic properties has proved difficult, particularly at room temperature.
Researchers at Zhejiang University, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Eastern Institute of Technology recently devised a strategy that could be used to design new multiferroics in which electrons spontaneously redistribute themselves between adjacent atomic layers.
The results of their initial physics-informed simulations, published in Physical Review Letters, hint at the potential of these materials for developing low-power, ultrathin and flexible devices.
To read more, click here.