多铁和磁电材料的第一性原理研究（英文）

First-principles studies of multiferroic and magnetoelectric materials

多铁材料是一类由自旋、电荷、晶格和轨道等多种自由度的相互作用引起的具有2种或者2种以上铁序的功能材料.近年来关于多铁性的报道屡见报端杂志,表明越来越多的研究人员关注着这一领域的研究进展.在这些研究成果中,第一性原理研究在解释实验观测,发现新物理机制和预测新型多铁、磁电材料方面都扮演着先锋角色.本文回顾了第一性原理在材料领域,尤其是多铁性、磁电效应和隧道结研究中的广泛应用和主要成果.结合最近发展的理论研究方法,例如选择性轨道加场法,评述了这些手段在解释多铁和磁电材料中奇异物理现象方面的有效性.由于电控磁性是多铁领域和自旋电子学领域追求的共同目标,因此总结了第一性原理研究在电控磁性方面所取得的成果.最后,本文概述了多铁和磁电材料在实际应用中亟待解决的问题,并且着重展望了若干种利于解决多铁和磁电材料领域实际问题的研究方法.本文通过深入探讨过渡金属氧化物中的铁电起源以及多铁体中铁电性和磁序的共存现象,期望能有益于新型多铁和磁电材料的探索.

Multiferroics are materials where two or more ferroic orders coexist owing to the interplay between spin, charge, lattice and orbital degrees of freedom. The explosive expansion of multiferroics literature in recent years demonstrates the fast growing interest in this field. In these studies, the first-principles calculation has played a pioneer role in the experiment explanation, mechanism discovery and prediction of novel multiferroics or magnetoelectric materials. In this review, we discuss, by no means comprehensively, the extensive applications and successful achievements of first-principles approach in the study of multiferroicity, magnetoelectric effect and tunnel junctions. In particular, we introduce some our recently developed methods, e.g., the orbital selective external potential method, which prove to be powerful tools in the finding of mechanisms responsible for the intriguing phenomena occurred in multiferroics or magnetoelectric materials. We also summarize first-principles studies on three types of electric control of magnetism, which is the common goal of both spintronics and multiferroics. Our review offers in depth understanding on the origin of ferroelectricity in transition metal oxides, and the coexistence of ferroelectricity and ordered magnetism, and might be helpful to explore novel multiferroic or magnetoelectric materials in the future.