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The limited routes for polar texture engineering in materials restrict energy efficient applications. Here, the authors establish lattice chemistry control and the use of polarizing surfaces to manipulate electric dipole ordering in thin films.

Multiferroic BiFeO₃ is promising for applications where electric and magnetic fields need to be coupled, for example, in magnetic data storage. Here, combining theory and experiment the authors provide a microscopic insight into the switching of magnetization by electric fields in BiFeO₃.

Ferroelectric heterostructures exhibit a range of functional properties; however control of their growth remains a challenge. De  Luca et al., demonstrate in-situ optical second harmonic generation to monitor and tailor the polarisation and growth of multilayer barium titanate and bismuth ferrite films.

Polar ordering in materials enables fascinating properties; however, achieving beyond binary responses remains a challenge. Here, the authors demonstrate control on the polar-to antipolar transition and multiple polarization states in BiFeO₃ thin films.

Evolution of improper ferroelectricity within the confinement of ultrathin films is essential for their successful implementation in nanoscale applications. Here, the authors show thickness dependence of the improper polarization originating from the strong modification of the primary order at epitaxial interfaces.

Setting any polarization value in ferroelectric thin films is a key step for their implementation in neuromorphic devices. Here, the authors demonstrate continuous modulation of the remanent polarization at the nanoscale in PbZr_0.52Ti_0.48O₃ films.

Ferroelectric dead layers can form at perovskite interfaces—a major challenge in integrating oxide thin films into devices. Here, by depositing an in-plane-polarized epitaxial buffer layer of Bi₅FeTi₃O₁₅, out-of-plane polarization is demonstrated in ultrathin films down to the single-unit-cell level.

Sub-100-mV switching at the nanosecond timescale is achieved in ferroelectric devices by approaching bulk-like perfection in prototypical BaTiO₃ thin films.

Integrating multifunctional oxides on silicon is highly desirable. Here, the authors present asymmetric BaTiO3 superlattices on silicon exhibiting enhanced out-of-plane polarization by harnessing the interfacial strain and broken inversion symmetry.

Solid-state hydrogen gating of a ferrimagnetic metal enables independent reversal of Néel and magnetization vectors by an electric field.

How to maintain a robust polarization in ferroelectrics despite its inherent suppression when going to the thin-film limit is a long-standing issue. Here, the authors propose the concept of competitive and cooperative interfaces and establish robust polarization states in the ultrathin regime.

Fast and low-power electrical control of magnetic textures is expected to enable a new generation of computational devices. Here the authors show how chiral interactions determine the structure of domain walls in Tm₃Fe₅O₁₂ and lead to efficient current-driven wall motion.

An array of nanoscale polar domains with varying conductance and that are electrically insulated by domain walls can be induced by the interplay of strain and defects in oxide thin films.

Characterizing surfaces by Raman spectroscopy is limited by the competition of surface and bulk Raman responses. Here the authors use nanoporous plasmonic membranes to enhance surface Raman signals while suppressing bulk contributions.

Shape-memory materials are promising actuation sources for small-scale machines. The authors demonstrate that domain switching in twisted ferroic nanocomposites enables a giant shape-memory effect and superelasticity in the nanoscale structure.

The electromechanical response of thin film ferroelectric devices is considerably influenced by ferroelastic domains. Here, the authors observe that these ferroeleastic domains can be stabilized by dislocations, providing feedback for a better control over the properties of these devices.

Magnetic skyrmions are topological spin textures that hold potential for the development of post-von Neumann computing schemes. In coupled ferrimagnetic insulators, pinning effects and intentional distortions can lead to a ratchet-like current-driven motion of skyrmion bubbles.

A scanning nitrogen-vacancy microscope is used to image ferroelectric domains in piezoelectric and improper ferroelectric samples with high sensitivity. The technique relies on the nitrogen-vacancy’s Stark shift produced by the samples’ electric field.

Multiferroic materials exhibit magnetic and ferroelectric order at the same time and provide a way to control magnetism with electric fields. We discuss the mechanisms supporting multiferroicity, multiferroic thin films and heterostructures, the non-equilibrium dynamics of multiferroics, fundamental symmetry issues and the impact of multiferroics on other research areas.