The Renaissance of Magnetoelectric Multiferroics

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Abstract
Magnetic and electronic materials permeate every aspect of modern technology. For example, the vast amount of data generated by consumer electronic products is often stored as regions of opposite magnetic polarization in ferromagnets (materials with a spontaneous magnetic polarization that can be reversed by a magnetic field). The sensors industry relies heavily on a related class of materials known as ferroelectrics (materials with a spontaneous electric polarization that can be switched by an applied electric field). Many ferroelectrics are also ferroelastic—that is, a change in their electric polarization is accompanied by a change in shape. As a result, they are used to convert sound waves into electrical signals in sonar detectors, and to convert electrical impulses into motion in actuators. Such materials, which combine two or more “ferroic” properties (see the first figure) in the same phase, are known as multiferroics (1).