Magnetoelectric effect in single-phase multiferroic materials

Recently, there has been an increasing interest in multiferroic compounds owing to the coexistence of different ferroic order parameters, suggesting great commercial and technological potential. Compared to composites which exhibit multiferroic properties due to synergistic coupling effects between different components, single-phase multiferroic materials exhibiting the magnetoelectric effect (ME) have attracted much attention because of their special crystal structure that contributes to ME, thereby offering promising potential for applications in spintronic devices. This chapter will provide an extensive discussion on single-phase ME materials with specific focus centered on various categories of ME materials based on their different mechanisms. The physical principles of ferromagnetism (FM), ferroelectricity (FE), and ME effects as a result of coupling interactions between FM and FE are first discussed in Sect. 2. Section 3 mainly concentrates on distinct types of single-phase ME materials with different underlying ME mechanisms. Section 4 provides a summary and perspective on future developments in the synthesis of a wide range of magnetoelectric materials.