Coexistence of Weak Ferromagnetism and Polar Lattice Distortion in Epitaxial NiTiO3 thin films of the LiNbO3-Type Structure

The authors report the magnetic and structural characteristics of epitaxial NiTiO3 films grown by pulsed laser deposition that are isostructural with acentric LiNbO3 (space group R3c). Optical second harmonic generation and magnetometry demonstrate lattice polarization at room temperature and weak ferromagnetism below 250 K, respectively. These results appear to be consistent with earlier predictions from first-principles calculations of the coexistence of ferroelectricity and weak ferromagnetism in a series of transition metal titanates crystallizing in the LiNbO3 structure. This acentric form of NiTiO3 is believed to be one of the rare examples of ferroelectrics exhibiting weak ferromagnetism generated by a Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction.