Multiferroics
materials that exhibit more than one of the primary ferroic order parameters
Multiferroics are defined as materials that exhibit more than one of the primary ferroic properties in the same phase:
ferromagnetism – a magnetisation that is switchable by an applied magnetic field
ferroelectricity – an electric polarisation that is switchable by an applied electric field
ferroelasticity – a deformation that is switchable by an applied stress
While ferroelectric, ferroelastics, and ferromagnetics are formally multiferroics, these days the term is usually used to describe the magnetoelectric multiferroics that are simultaneously ferromagnetic and ferroelectric. Sometimes the definition is expanded to include nonprimary order parameters, such as antiferromagnetism or ferrimagnetism. In addition, other types of primary order, such as ferroic arrangements of magnetoelectric multipoles of which ferrotoroidicity is an example, were proposed.
Besides scientific interest in their physical properties, multiferroics have potential for applications as actuators, switches, magnetic field sensors and new types of electronic memory devices.
History
A Web of Science search for the term multiferroic yields the year 2000 paper "Why are there so few magnetic ferroelectrics?" from Nicola Spaldin (then Hill) as the earliest result. This work explained the origin of the contraindication between magnetism and ferroelectricity and proposed practical routes to circumvent it, and is widely credited with starting the modern explosion of interest in multiferroic materials. The availability of practical routes to creating multiferroic materials from 2000 stimulated intense activity. Particularly key early works were the discovery of large ferroelectric polarization in epitaxially grown thin films of magnetic BiFeO3, the observation that the non-collinear magnetic ordering in orthorhombic TbMnO3 and TbMn2O5 causes ferroelectricity, and the identification of unusual improper ferroelectricity that is compatible with the coexistence of magnetism in hexagonal manganite YMnO3. The graph to the right shows in red the number of papers on multiferroics from a Web of Science search until 2008; the exponential increase continues today.
Magnetoelectric materials
To place multiferroic materials in their appropriate historical context, one also needs to consider magnetoelectric materials, in which an electric field modifies the magnetic properties and vice versa.
The public source identifies “Multiferroics” as materials that exhibit more than one of the primary ferroic order parameters. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Multiferroics, materials and exhibit.
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This entry incorporates text from “Multiferroics” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.