Room temperature magnetoelectric coupling in Pb(Fe1/2Nb1/2)O3 by counterbalancing imbalanced spin moments through spin canting

In this study, ferroelectric Pb(Fe1/2Nb1/2)O3 with an antiferromagnetic polymorph at and below 150 K was converted into a room-temperature magnetoelectrically active multiferroic with soft ferromagnetism by disrupting the existing antiparallel spin alignment of Fe ions through the heavy replacement of Fe by Ni. To maximize the induced soft-ferromagnetic properties and the consequent nonlinear magnetoelectric coupling, the substitution level of Ni should be controlled such that the individual Ni ions are separated from one another to avoid mutual spin cancellation. The induced magnetoelectric coupling was found to originate from the collective contribution of oppositely canted pairs of spins in two nearby Fe3+ ions, which counterbalances the relatively smaller spin moment of the in-between Ni ions. The non-material specific nature of this strategy implies that it can be used in the development of new room-temperature multiferroic perovskite oxides.