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Ferroelectrics and multiferroics are a class of materials that exhibit switching of their physical properties under an external influence. Ferroelectrics demonstrate a switchable electric polarization when an electric field is applied. Multiferroics exhibit a similar ‘ferroic’ behaviour in two or more of their (usually electric, magnetic or elastic) properties.
There is a desire to know how the threefold ferrielectric coexists with the antiferroelectric phase. Here, the authors realize a threefold-modulated ferrielectric phase regulated by strain-mediated phase separation in PbZrO3 thin film.
Phase diagrams of materials are typically based on a static order parameter, but it faces challenges when distinguishing subtle phase changes, such as re-ordering. Here the authors introduce a dynamic re-order parameter, in particular magnons, and illustrate it in a material with complex magnetic phases.
The authors report coexisting ferromagnetism, polar distortion and metallicity in quasi-two-dimensional Ca3Co3O8, providing a platform to exploit magnetoelectric coupling in a metallic system.
Electrocaloric effects have not hitherto been experimentally studied at a phase transition created by strain. It is now shown that the continuous transition created by epitaxial strain in strontium titanate films greatly enhances electrocaloric effects over a wide range of temperatures, including room temperature.
By forming a heterostructure interface, and by judicious choice of crystallographic orientation, piezoelectrics are developed that show expansion or contraction along all axes on application of an electric field.
By inserting an epitaxial in-plane buffer layer of Bi5FeTi3O15, an artificial flux closure architecture enables ferroelectric polarization from a single unit cell of BaTiO3 or BiFeO3.
An article in Nature Electronics reports the integration of a ferroelectric gate with a transition metal dichalcogenide heterostructure in a device that can work both as a reconfigurable logic switch and as a neuromorphic device.
The guiding of magnetic fields by soft ferromagnetic solids is well known and exploited in magnetic shielding applications. Now, ferroelectric nematic liquids are shown to analogously guide electric fields.