Dear Colleagues,

It is now more than two decades since the concept of multiferroic materials came to the attention of the scientific community. In those times, the incompatibility between the d0-ness needed for ferroelectricity and dn-ness needed for ferromagnetism seemed to be a major obstacle to the discovery of multiferroic compounds. However, in a few years, several mechanisms leading to the breaking of space-inversion symmetry in magnetic materials were observed, such as “lone pair” ferroelectricity (as in BiFeO₃ and other analogues perovskites), charge ordering (the debated case of LuFe₂O₄) or magneto-electric coupling in non-collinear spin orderings (via Dzyaloshinskii–Morya interactions as in TbMnO₃ and other spiral magnets). Furthermore, the ability to realize composite materials joining ferroelectric and  magnetic components has enormously enlarged the possible playground. Along with the obvious scientific interest, steadily increasing attention has been drawn by the conceivable future applications, particularly in the fields of spintronics, sensoristics and information technology. Much of the technological appeal stems from the inherent magneto-electric coupling, which could allow for replacing the conventional magnetic-field control of magnetization with electric-field control: this would result in much lower energy consumption, and for this reason, microelectronics companies have become active in this research field. The feasibility of room temperature working heterostructures of this kind has already been  demonstrated, for instance, by spin-valve deposition on BiFeO₃. Needless to say, such remarkable advances have been made possible by the development of new techniques for synthesis (such as layer-by-layer deposition) and characterization (such as scanning probe microscopy). Much ground has been covered, and today, the main key features to be addressed by new multiferroic materials are:

• Robust magneto-electric coupling;
• A working temperature range reasonably above room temperature;
• High magnetic remanence;
• A small switching electric field.

This Special Issue aims to attract scientific contributions providing new insights into and advances in the synthesis and characterization of novel multiferroic materials and composites. It is my pleasure to invite you to submit a manuscript: full papers, communications and reviews are all welcome.

Dr. Riccardo Cabassi
Guest Editor

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• multiferroism
• magnetoelectricity
• magnetic and/or electric characterization
• synthesis and structural analysis
• spintronics
• multiferroic materials
• multiferroic composites