Multifield Control of Domains in a Room-Temperature Multiferroic 0.85BiTi0.1Fe0.8Mg0.1O3–0.15CaTiO3 Thin Film

Single-phase materials that combine electric polarization and magnetization are promising for applications in multifunctional sensors, information storage, spintronic devices, etc. Following the idea of a percolating network of magnetic ions (e.g., Fe) with strong superexchange interactions within a structural scaffold with a polar lattice, a solid solution thin film with perovskite structure at a morphotropic phase boundary with a high level of Fe atoms on the B site of perovskite structure is deposited to combine both ferroelectric and ferromagnetic ordering at room temperature with magnetoelectric coupling. In this work, a 0.85BiTi0.1Fe0.8Mg0.1O3–0.15CaTiO3 thin film has been deposited by pulsed laser deposition (PLD). Both the ferroelectricity and the magnetism were characterized at room temperature. Large polarization and a large piezoelectric effective coefficient d33 were obtained. Multifield coupling of the thin film has been characterized by scanning force microscopy. Ferroelectric domains and ma...