title: Room temperature magnetoelectric coupling in intrinsic multiferroic Aurivillius phase textured ceramics.
abstract: 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 Bi4.25La0.75Ti3Fe0.5Co0.5O15based 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.
authors.affiliation: School of Engineering and Materials Science, Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Road, London, E1 4NS, UK. h.x.yan@qmul.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Zheng
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: School of Materials Science and Engineering and State Key Laboratory of New Ceramics and Fine Processing, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China. ma-jing@tsinghua.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.affiliation: National Key Laboratory of Shock Wave and Detonation Physics, Institute of Fluid Physics, China Academy of Engineering Physics, Mianyang 621900, China.
authors.forename: Zhipeng
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: School of Engineering and Materials Science, Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Road, London, E1 4NS, UK. h.x.yan@qmul.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Viola
authors.affiliation: Institute of Materials Research, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Watsonova 47, 04001 Kosice, Slovakia.
authors.forename: Vladimir
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Koval
authors.affiliation: School of Engineering and Materials Science, Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Road, London, E1 4NS, UK. h.x.yan@qmul.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Amit
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mahajan
authors.affiliation: School of Engineering and Materials Science, Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Road, London, E1 4NS, UK. h.x.yan@qmul.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Xuan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: School of Physical Science and Technology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China.
authors.forename: Chenglong
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Jia
authors.affiliation: School of Materials Science and Engineering and State Key Laboratory of New Ceramics and Fine Processing, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China. ma-jing@tsinghua.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Cewen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Nan
authors.affiliation: School of Engineering and Materials Science, Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Road, London, E1 4NS, UK. h.x.yan@qmul.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Haixue
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yan