New Routes to Optimised Multiferroics
Lead Research Organisation:
University College London
Department Name: Physics and Astronomy
Abstract
Many materials which are used in sensor and data storage technology use effects associated with the alignment of atomic electric or magnetic moments. There are fundamental reasons for thinking that materials should either have electric order (called ferroelectric order) or magnetic order (called ferromagnetic order), but not both. However certain materials, called multiferroics, break this rule and do show both effects, and therefore have some rather intriguing properties. Ferromagnetic order can then be controlled by an electric field, or ferroelectric order can be controlled by a magnetic field. This could have a revolutionary effect on sensors and data storage applications, but multiferroics are poorly understood. This proposal represents an interdisciplinary collaboration (Physics, Chemistry, Materials) between Oxford, UCL and Imperial, which aims to use a combination of experimental techniques to solve this problem. By using this combination of state-of-the-art methods, neutrons, x-rays, muons, magnetometry, magnetodielectric measurements and electron microscopy, we have the possibility of gaining new understanding in this complex problem which we hope to feed in to the design of optimised materials for future applications.
Organisations
Publications
McEwen K
(2007)
Understanding the quadrupolar structures of
in Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials
Forrest T
(2008)
Ordering of localized electronic states in multiferroic TbMnO 3 : a soft x-ray resonant scattering study
in Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter
Walker H
(2009)
X-ray resonant scattering study of the magnetic phase diagram of multiferroic TbMnO 3
in Physica B: Condensed Matter
Fabrizi F
(2010)
Electric field control of multiferroic domains in Ni 3 V 2 O 8 imaged by x-ray polarization-enhanced topography
in Physical Review B
Stock C
(2011)
Helical spin waves, magnetic order, and fluctuations in the langasite compound Ba 3 NbFe 3 Si 2 O 14
in Physical Review B
Mannix D
(2007)
X-ray scattering study of the order parameters in multiferroic Tb Mn O 3
in Physical Review B
Ewings R
(2008)
X-ray resonant diffraction study of multiferroic Dy Mn 2 O 5
in Physical Review B
Nandi S
(2011)
Strong coupling of Sm and Fe magnetism in SmFeAsO as revealed by magnetic x-ray scattering
in Physical Review B
Walker H
(2009)
X-ray resonant scattering study of the structural and magnetic transitions in PrB 6
in Physical Review B
Fabrizi F
(2009)
Circularly polarized X rays as a probe of noncollinear magnetic order in multiferroic TbMnO3.
in Physical review letters
Fabrizi F
(2011)
Erratum: Circularly Polarized X Rays as a Probe of Noncollinear Magnetic Order in Multiferroic TbMn O 3 [Phys. Rev. Lett. 102 , 237205 (2009)]
in Physical Review Letters
Wilkins SB
(2009)
Nature of the magnetic order and origin of induced ferroelectricity in TbMnO3.
in Physical review letters
Beale TA
(2010)
Antiferromagnetically spin polarized oxygen observed in magnetoelectric TbMn2O5.
in Physical review letters
Christensen NB
(2007)
Quantum dynamics and entanglement of spins on a square lattice.
in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Walker HC
(2011)
Femtoscale magnetically induced lattice distortions in multiferroic TbMnO3.
in Science (New York, N.Y.)