Nanoferronics

Computational Nanoferronics Laboratory

Multiferroic materials are in broader sense defined as materials possessing two or more ferroic orders. In practice, most research is dedicated to the multiferroics which combine ferroelectricity and ferromagnetism, due to their high potential in spintronics applications. In particular, current driven through a magnetic tunnel junction with a multiferroic tunnel barrier could be controlled via the magnetic and/or electric polarization of the barrier.

Junctions with a multiferroic tunnel barrier are usually referred to as multiferroic tunnel junctions. Alternatively, multiferroic tunnel junctions can be realized by combining a ferroelectric barrier with ferromagnetic leads. The fast developing field of nanoferronics focuses on the transport properties of such multifunctional junctions.

We use density-functional theory to explore the dependence of the electronic structure of multiferroic bulk materials and films on chemical composition, structural relaxations, dimensionality, and temperature, with the goal of predicting novel multiferroic materials and junctions with improved functionality.