title: Multiferroics: progress and prospects in thin films.
abstract: Multiferroic materials, which show simultaneous ferroelectric and magnetic ordering, exhibit unusual physical properties - and in turn promise new device applications - as a result of the coupling between their dual order parameters. We review recent progress in the growth, characterization and understanding of thin-film multiferroics. The availability of high-quality thin-film multiferroics makes it easier to tailor their properties through epitaxial strain, atomic-level engineering of chemistry and interfacial coupling, and is a prerequisite for their incorporation into practical devices. We discuss novel device paradigms based on magnetoelectric coupling, and outline the key scientific challenges in the field.
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA. rramesh@berkeley.edu
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ramesh
authors.forename: Nicola A
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Spaldin