γ-BaFe2O4: a fresh playground for room temperature multiferroicity

Multiferroics, showing the coexistence of two or more ferroic orderings at room temperature, could harness a revolution in multifunctional devices. However, most of the multiferroic compounds known to date are not magnetically and electrically ordered at ambient conditions, so the discovery of new m...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature communications 2022-12, Vol.13 (1), p.7968-10, Article 7968
Main Authors: Orlandi, Fabio, Delmonte, Davide, Calestani, Gianluca, Cavalli, Enrico, Gilioli, Edmondo, Shvartsman, Vladimir V., Graziosi, Patrizio, Rampino, Stefano, Spaggiari, Giulia, Liu, Chao, Ren, Wei, Picozzi, Silvia, Solzi, Massimo, Casappa, Michele, Mezzadri, Francesco
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
119/118
140/133
147/3
639/301/1005/1007
639/301/1005/1008
Antiferromagnetism
Coexistence
Crystal structure
Density functional theory
Electrical measurement
Ferroelectricity
Humanities and Social Sciences
Lead free
Magnetic measurement
multidisciplinary
Multiferroic materials
Neutron diffraction
Playgrounds
Room temperature
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Temperature
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Multiferroics, showing the coexistence of two or more ferroic orderings at room temperature, could harness a revolution in multifunctional devices. However, most of the multiferroic compounds known to date are not magnetically and electrically ordered at ambient conditions, so the discovery of new materials is pivotal to allow the development of the field. In this work, we show that BaFe 2 O 4 is a previously unrecognized room temperature multiferroic. X-ray and neutron diffraction allowed to reveal the polar crystal structure of the compound as well as its antiferromagnetic behavior, confirmed by bulk magnetometry characterizations. Piezo force microscopy and electrical measurements show the polarization to be switchable by the application of an external field, while symmetry analysis and calculations based on density functional theory reveal the improper nature of the ferroelectric component. Considering the present findings, we propose BaFe 2 O 4 as a Bi- and Pb-free model for the search of new advanced multiferroic materials. The application of multiferroics is often limited by low ordering temperatures. Here, the authors show that BaFe2O 4 is a room temperature antiferromagnet with improper ferroelectricity, suggesting it as a playground for the study of multiferroicity.
ISSN:2041-1723
2041-1723
DOI:10.1038/s41467-022-35669-5