LQM in Nature Communications.

By mixing two different kinds of magnetic ions in a single crystalline material, researchers from the Laboratory for Quantum Magnetism have shown that the coupling for what is known as the magnetoelectric effect can be increased by a factor of almost 100. This coupling enables electric-field-control of magnetically encoded information and for which one of the main advantages is the low power consumption. The existing magnetoelectric technology consists of sandwiches of different kinds of materials which result in the desired functionality. The coupling in single-phase magnetoelectrics is a barrier for their application but this work has demonstrated the potential of mixed-ion magnets for a dramatic enhancement of the effect. These results are promising for the next-generation magnetoelectric spintronics.