Nanostructured multiferroics

Abstract

Multiferroic materials exhibit both ferromagnetic and ferroelectric order. Single phase multiferroics are rare innature. Also the magnetodielectric coupling parameters exhibited by them are not large enough for practicalapplications. There has been active research in the last few years to synthesize nanoscale composites of ferroelectricand ferromagnetic systems. In this article we have reviewed the recent developments in this area. The compositesdescribed have a range of nanostructural configurations, viz. core-shell nanostructure, particulate composites,glass-crystal nanocomposites, nanocomposte films and nanocomposites made by using Na-4 mica nanochannels.Nanocomposite films have shown high magnetodielectric effect. Some unusual systems like nanostructured Co₃O₄ and GaN have exhibited multiferroic behaviour with the latter showing a giant magnetodielectric effect. It is expectedthat by a suitable choice of combination of the matrix phase and the nanophase one could tune the magnetodielectricbehaviour to suit a particular application.