New Multiferroic Materials: Bi2FeMnO6

Abstract

The term “ferroic” was introduced by Aizu in 1970, and presented a unified treatment of certain symmetry-dictated aspects of ferroelectric, ferroelastic, and ferromagnetic materials. Ferroelectric materials possess a spontaneous polarization that is stable and can be switched hysteretically by an applied electric field; antiferroelectric materials possess ordered dipole moments that cancel each other completely within each crystallographic unit cell. Ferromagnetic materials possess a spontaneous magnetization that is stable and can be swithched hysteretically by an applied magnetic field; antiferromagnetic materials possess ordered magnetic moments that cancel each other completely within each magnetic unit cell. By the original definition, a single-phase multiferroic material is one that possesses more than one ‘ferroic’ properties: ferroelectricity, ferromagnetism or ferroelasticity. But the classification of multiferroics has been broadened to include antiferroic order. Multiferroic materials, in which ferroelectricity and magnetism coexist, the control of magnetic properties by an applied electric field or, in contrast, the switching of electrical polarization by a magnetic field, have attracted a great deal of interest. Now we can classify multiferroic materials into two parts: one is single-phase materials; the other is layered or composite heterostructures. The most desirable situation would be to discover an intrinsic single-phase multiferroic material at room temperature. However, BiFeO3 is the only known perovskite oxides that exhibits both antiferromagnetism and ferroelectricity above room temperature. Thus, it is essential to broaden the searching field for new candidates, which resulted in considerable interest on designed novel single phase materials and layered or composite heterostructures.