Room-temperature magnetoelectric coupling in Bi4(Ti1Fe2)O12-δ system

Bi₄(Ti₁Fe₂)O_12-δ ceramics were prepared by the conventional solid state reaction method. The sample exhibited ferroelectricity and magnetism simultaneously at room temperature, which was demonstrated by the ferroelectric (2P_r = 4.1 µC cm^-2, 2E_c = 42 kV cm^-1 at applied electric field 31 kV cm^-1) and ferromagnetic (M_r = 3 × 10^-3 emu g^-1, H_c = 218 Oe) hysteresis loops. Changes of 19.7% and 17.1% in, respectively, remanent polarization and magnetization after poling the sample in magnetic and dc electric for fields 10 min were evidence of magnetoelectric coupling between the electric dipoles and magnetic dipoles at room temperature.