Room temperature magnetoelectric coupling in intrinsic multiferroic Aurivillius phase textured ceramics.

Spark plasma sintering was employed in order to obtain textured Aurivillius phase ceramics that simultaneously exhibit ferroelectric and ferromagnetic properties at room temperature. The sintered multiferroics are layer-structured, nearly single-phase materials. Although a small amount of the secondary phase consisting of magnetic Co and Fe was detected by SEM/EDX, a majority of the observed ferromagnetic behaviour was attributed to the Aurivillius phase BiLaTiFeCoO based on the observed magnetic anisotropy. The ferroelectric switching was demonstrated to exist in the Aurivillius phase ceramics by measuring the current peaks upon electric field reversal. Piezoresponse force microscopy at room temperature revelaed substantial changes of the ferroelectric domain structure when the Aurivillius phase material is subjected to an external magnetic field.