Fabrication of the multiferroic oxide thin films

Multiferroic materials refer to the ones which have at least two ferroic effects (ferroelectricity, ferromagnetism, ferroelasticity and ferrotoroidicity) coexist in the same phase. Of particular interest is the magnetoelectric (ME) multiferroics which have a coupling effect of (anti) ferroelectricity and (anti) ferromagnetism. This coupling provides an extra degree of freedom for designs of whole new devices and applications.

Due to the viability of Metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) in the future industrial production, this technique was used to fabricate the thin film form of such materials. Recently, BiFeO₃ thin films which showed good ME properties were obtained by MOCVD method. A new precursor, n-butylferrocene was used in the experiments.