Multiferroics, which are both ferroelectric and magnetic, are promising for a wide range of applications, such as ferromagnetic resonance devices, photovoltaics and magnetoelectric memory cells. Most of these devices would exploit the ferroelectric properties of these materials, but a team in France, Russia and the US has now looked at the antiferromagnetic properties of the most well known of all multiferroics, bismuth ferrite (BiFeO₃), and in particular how the perovskite oxide thin film behaves under strain. The study has revealed how the material might be used in data storage and spintronics devices, and perhaps even in a new technology called “magnonics”.

http://nanotechweb.org/cws/article/tech/53313