The Magnetoelectric Effect in Transition Metal Oxides: Insights and the Rational Design of New Materials from First Principles

TL;DR

This paper reviews how first-principles calculations have advanced the understanding and discovery of magnetoelectric materials in transition metal oxides, highlighting mechanisms and guiding material design.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive review of the role of first-principles methods in understanding and predicting magnetoelectric effects in transition metal oxides.

Findings

First-principles calculations elucidate microscopic mechanisms of magnetoelectric coupling.

Guidelines for designing new magnetoelectric materials are derived from computational insights.

Several candidate materials with enhanced magnetoelectric effects are identified.

Abstract

The search for materials displaying a large magnetoelectric effect has occupied researchers for many decades. The rewards could include not only advanced electronics technologies, but also fundamental insights concerning the dielectric and magnetic properties of condensed matter. In this article, we focus on the magnetoelectric effect in transition metal oxides and review the manner in which first-principles calculations have helped guide the search for (and increasingly, predicted) new materials and shed light on the microscopic mechanisms responsible for magnetoelectric phenomena.