multiferroics tagged posts

Researchers have demonstrated that the layered multiferroic material nickel iodide (NiI2) may be the best candidate yet for devices such as magnetic computer memory that are extremely fast and compact. Specifically, they found that NiI2 has greater magnetoelectric coupling than any known material of its kind.

For decades, scientists have been studying a group of unusual materials called multiferroics that could be useful for a range of applications including computer memory, chemica...

The spin cycloid structure in BiFeO3. Credit: MIPT press-office

Electromagnetic effect allows to control magnetic ‪polarization of a material by applying external electric field. Materials with such properties may be used to develop a new generation of ultra-energy efficient‪ computer memoy . A team proposed a theoretical model that explains the unexpectedly high values of the linear magnetoelectric effect in BiFeO3 (bismuth ferrite) that have been observed in a number of experiments and also suggested a way of further enhancing the effect.

One particular feature of bismuth ferrite is that in bulk samples, spins of Fe3+ iron ions are arranged in the form of a cycloid. This spin structure can be destroyed by a strong magnetic field or mechanical stress...

The first ever observations of polar vortices in a ferroelectic material could find potential applications in ultracompact data storage and processing and the production of new states of matter. Credit: Berkeley Lab

New state of matter holds promise for ultracompact data storage, processing. The observation in a ferroelectric material of “polar vortices” that appear to be the electrical cousins of magnetic skyrmions holds intriguing possibilities for advanced electronic devices. These polar vortices, which were theoretically predicted more than a decade ago, could also “rewrite our basic understanding of ferroelectrics”.

“It has long been thought that rotating topological structures are confined to magnetic systems and aren’t possible in ferroelectric materials, but through the creation of...