Thermodynamic aspects of epitaxial self-assembly and magnetoelectric response in multiferroic nanostructures

A thermodynamic approach was used to describe the formation and magnetoelectric response of composite multiferroic films. Experimental and theoretical results that address the origins of different phase morphologies in epitaxial spinel-perovskite nanostructures grown on differently oriented substrates are presented. A theoretical model of magnetoelectric coupling in multiferroic nanostructures that considers a microscopic mechanism of magnetization in single-domain magnetic nanorods is described. This model explains a discontinuous electromagnetic coupling, as observed experimentally, and predicts a hysteretic behavior of magnetization under external electric fields. © 2007 Materials Research Society.