A new route to magnetic ferroelectrics

Materials that are simultaneously ferroelectric and ferromagnetic are gaining more and more attention within the scientifi c community. Such magnetoelectric multiferroics are an example of the broader class of multifunctional or smart materials that combine several useful properties in the same substance to produce new phenomena that are more than just the sum of the individual parts. For example, one can envisage a coupling between ferroelectric and ferromagnetic properties that could lead to electric-fi eld-switchable magnetization or vice versa. Such coupling would lead to totally new possibilities in the design of data-storage devices, in addition to revealing fascinating new basic physics. Dmitry Efremov and colleagues have now proposed an entirely new route to combining ferromagnetism and ferroelectricity in a single material1. Their proposal is exciting because very few magnetoelectric multiferroics exist. In fact, the mechanism driving the ferroelectricity in typical perovskite ferroelectrics such as BaTiO3 Materials that exhibit both ferromagnetism and ferroelectricity could be useful, but they are unfortunately very rare. Could a new proposal for combining the two properties point the way forward