Large magnetoelectric coupling near room temperature in synthetic melanostibite Mn2FeSbO6

Multiferroic materials exhibit two or more ferroic orders and have potential applications as multifunctional materials in the electronics industry. A coupling of ferroelectricity and ferromagnetism is hereby particularly promising. We show that the synthetic melanostibite mineral MnFeSbO (R (Formula presented.) space group) with ilmenite-type structure exhibits cation off-centering that results in alternating modulated displacements, thus allowing antiferroelectricity to occur. Massive magnetoelectric coupling (MEC) and magnetocapacitance effect of up to 4000 % was detected at a record high temperature of 260 K. The multiferroic behavior is based on the imbalance of cationic displacements caused by a magnetostrictive mechanism, which sets up an unprecedented example to pave the way for the development of highly effective MEC devices operational at or near room temperature.
The authors thank MINECO for funding through projects MAT2013‐44964‐R, MAT2013‐41099‐R, MAT2015‐71070‐REDC, MAT2014‐52405‐C02‐02, CTQ2015‐67755‐C2‐1‐R (MINECO/FEDER) and FPI (BES‐2013‐066112) and Ramon y Cajal (RyC‐2010–06276) fellowships, and Comunidad de Madrid through S‐2013/MIT‐2753 grant.