Multiferroic materials that combine ferroelectricity and ferromagnetism have made significant progress over the past two decades due to their potential as next-generation information storage devices. However, their application has been almost exclusively limited to oxides.
The research group of Assistant Professor Takuya Aoyama (Graduate School of Science and Faculty of Science), Associate Professor Yusuke Nambu (Institute of Materials Research), Specially Appointed Associate Professor Shunsuke Kurosawa (NICHe), Specially Appointed Assistant Professor Akihiro Yamaji (NICHe), Specific Assistant Professor Tong Zhu (Kyoto University), Associate Professor Hiroshi Takatsu (Kyoto University) , Associate Professor Cedric Tassel (Kyoto University), Professor Hiroshi Yagiyama (Kyoto University) et al. discovered perovskite chlorides that exhibit multiferroic properties.
While conventional oxides are controlled by electric and magnetic fields, the use of chlorides has enabled the first successful control at temperature. In addition to the flexibility of chlorides, the use of lower-charge metals greatly expands the scope of material development and is expected to facilitate the development of practical devices.
The results were published in Nature Materials on January 5, 2024.
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