What is it about?
Multiferroic materials combine magnetism and electricity in a single system, making them promising for future technologies like ultra-efficient memories, sensors, and actuators. In this work, we explore how lattice distortions can mediate the interaction between magnetic moments and electric dipoles, using what we call a pantograph model. This approach helps explain how magnetic fields can switch electric polarization on and off — and vice versa. Our findings provide new insights into designing materials with strong magnetoelectric coupling, a key step toward next-generation multifunctional devices.
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Why is it important?
Controlling magnetism with electricity (and electricity with magnetism) is a central goal in condensed matter physics and materials science. This could enable low-power data storage, reconfigurable electronics, and novel sensing devices. Our work identifies a microscopic mechanism that may be present in many multiferroic materials, pointing toward ways to enhance magnetoelectric responses through lattice engineering.
Perspectives
The pantograph mechanism, robust due to its topological character, could be at the root of the bulk polarization jumps observed in many different multiferroic materials. We expect that the present paradigm might be fitted to actual experimental parameters and be identified as one of the microscopic mechanisms behind magnetically induced polarization jumps. The present work could guide the design and manufacture of composite artificial multiferroic systems, such as multilayers where the mechanical strain transfer couples ferroelectricity and ferromagnetism, or even regularly nano-patterned arrays where flexoelectricity couples magnetostrictive strain gradients with electric polarization, in different materials. The technological control of multiferroicity in these multiphase composite systems is rapidly progressing and could in future be the alternative to chemically synthesized multiferroic compounds, reaching larger magnetoelectric responses.
Daniel Carlos Cabra
Universidad Nacional de la Plata
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Exploring magnetoelectric coupling through lattice distortions: Insights from a pantograph model, Journal of Applied Physics, August 2025, American Institute of Physics,
DOI: 10.1063/5.0273516.
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