Cornell researchers made a thin film of europium titanate ferromagnetic and ferroelectric by "stretching" it. They did it by depositing the material on an underlying substrate with a larger spacing between its atoms.
The oxide compound europium titanate is pretty boring on its own. But sliced nanometers thin and physically stretched on a specially designed template, it takes on properties that could revolutionize the electronics industry, according to Cornell-led research. The research team, publishing Aug. 19, reports that thin films of europium titanate become both ferroelectric - electrically polarized - and ferromagnetic - exhibiting a permanent magnetic field - when laid and stretched across a substrate of dysprosium scandate, another type of oxide. The best simultaneously ferroelectric, ferromagnetic material to date pales in comparison by a factor of 1,000. Simultaneous ferroelectricity and ferromagnetism is rare in nature and coveted by electronics visionaries. A material with this magical combination could form the basis for low-power, highly sensitive magnetic memory, magnetic sensors or highly tunable microwave devices.
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