New Fluoride-based Magnetoelectrics

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Magnetoelectrics are a special class of solid-state material which simultaneously possess both magnetic and electrical ordering properties. Currently, many information storage technologies are based on either magnetic or electrical ordering and switchability. If a materials possesses both these properties then, in principle, it should be possible to exploit this advantageously, for example by storing data electrically, but reading it magnetically. There has therefore been a recent resurgence of interest worldwide in such magnetoelectric materials, driven largely by the materials science and physics communities. Although this has led to considerable fundamental understanding of exisiting materials it has also flagged up a serious lack of new materials being discovered and developed. This 'discovery' aspect is the realm of the solid state chemist, and in this project we aim to address this problem from a solid state chemistry perspective. We shall explore new mixed metal fluoride materials as potential magnetoelectrics, basing our search on a sound understanding of the structural and compositional chemistry of this family of compounds. We shall characterise our new compounds using a variety of crystallographic and physical (ie. magnetic and electrical) techniques in order to pin down the key structure-property-composition relations of these materials. Ultimately, we aim to provide a range of new materials exhibiting magnetoelectric effects, on which the materials science and physics communities will be able to base more applied and developmental work.