Multiferroic materials are lattices that simultaneously display two complementary properties, such as ferroelectricity and ferromagnetism. Developing such materials is synthetically quite challenging because most magnetic materials are inherently metallic, hence generally not expected to exhibit dielectric polarization under an externally applied electric field, a prerequisite for a ferroelectric lattice. Recently we have developed a systematic protocol for developing multiferroic systems, starting with either a well characterized magnetic lattice and adding an electrically polarizable ligand; or starting with a highly electrically polar compound and adding magnetic ions with matching ionic charge and radius. This presentation will discuss examples of both types; based in part on our recent reports [1-3].
References
[1] P. Jain et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc. 131, 13625 (2009).
[2] P. Jain et al., Quantum Materials 1, 16012 (2016).
[3] J.S. Kinyon et al.; Phys. Rev. B92, 144103 (2015).