Multiferroics are promising for sensor and memory applications, but despite all efforts invested in their research no single-phase material displaying both ferroelectricity and large magnetization at room-temperature has hitherto been reported. This situation has substantially been improved in the novel relaxor ferroelectric single-phase (BiFe 0.9 Co 0.1 O 3 ) 0.4 -(Bi 1/2 K 1/2 TiO 3 ) 0.6 , where polar nanoregions (PNR) transform into static-PNR (SPNR) as evidenced by piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM) and simultaneously enable congruent multiferroic clusters (MFC) to emerge from inherent ferrimagnetic Bi(Fe,Co)O 3 regions as verified by magnetic force microscopy (MFM) and secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS).On these MFC, exceptionally large direct and converse magnetoelectric coupling coefficients, α ≈ 1.0 x 10 -5 s/m at room-temperature, were measured by PFM and MFM respectively. We expect the non-ergodic relaxor properties which are governed by the Bi 1/2 K 1/2 TiO 3 component to play a vital role in the strong ME coupling, by providing an electrically and mechanically flexible environment to MFC. This new class of non-ergodic relaxor multiferroics bears great 3 potential for applications. Especially the prospect of a ME nanodot storage device seems appealing.

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In this work, combining experimental results and first principles calculations, we show that interstitial nitrogen not only serves for inducing tetragonality in α′-Fe8Nx but is also essential for achieving a high degree of perpendicular magneto-crystalline anisotropy, K. Our results demonstrate that the orbital magnetic moments of the iron atoms above and below N in the direction of magnetization are much more susceptible to the applied magnetic field than their in-plane counterparts, leading to a giant value of K as compared to a hypothetical distorted material without N.

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L. F. Henrichs and co‐workers report on page 2111 an electric‐field‐induced magnetoelectric switching in (BiFe0.9Co0.1O3)0.4–(Bi1/2K1/2TiO3)0.6 ceramics, within newly discovered multiferroic clusters (MFCs). The MFCs are suggested to be both ferroelectric and ferromagnetic, and ferromagnetic ordering leads to an exceptionally large Néel temperature. The material has potential for applications in sensors and memory devices.