Growth, structure, and properties of epitaxial thin films of first-principles predicted multiferroic Bi2FeCrO6

The authors report the structural and physical properties of epitaxial Bi2FeCrO6 thin films on epitaxial SrRuO3 grown on (100)-oriented SrTiO3 substrates by pulsed laser ablation. The 300nm thick films exhibit both ferroelectricity and magnetism at room temperature with a maximum dielectric polarization of 2.8μC∕cm2 at Emax=82kV∕cm and a saturated magnetization of 20emu∕cm3 (corresponding to ∼0.26μB per rhombohedral unit cell), with coercive fields below 100Oe. The results confirm the predictions made using ab initio calculations about the existence of multiferroic properties in Bi2FeCrO6.