Room temperature multiferroic heterostructure: Nd: BiFeO3/YMnO3

Abstract: In order to search candidate multiferroics, a heterostructure of Nd:BiFeO3/YMnO3 (BFO/YMO) was designed. It was fabricated using a pulsed laser deposition (PLD) method on (111) Nb: SrTiO3 substrate through layer-by-layer growth. The particularly interesting phases for Nd:BiFeO3 (P4mm) and YMnO3 (hexagonal and orthorhombic) were observed. This film has a high ferromagnetic Curie temperature at 420K. The ferroelectric domain switching was observed and it exhibited large electromechanical coupling with maximum d 33∼73pm/V at 10V. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]