Modeling of magnetoelectric and surface properties in superlattices and nanofilms of multiferroics

Abstract

Abstract In this paper, we study the phase transitions in superlattice with two order parameters by the use of Monte Carlo simulation. We have studied the effects of temperature, external magnetic field, magnetoelectric coupling and interface effects on the multiferroic superlattice. Our multiferroic superlattice is formed by interleaved ferromagnetic and ferroelectric layers. Ferromagnetic layers are modelled as simple cubic lattice with Heisenberg spins. Electrical polarization of (0, ±1) was randomly assigned at each simple cubic lattice site in the ferroelectric layers in the direction perpendicular to the plane of layers. The effect of magnetoelectric coupling between ferroelectric and ferromagnetic layers of the system on the critical temperature, the order parameters, the susceptibility, the internal energy, the surface magnetization of the system have been considered in detail. The layer magnetizations as functions of temperature are shown for various interaction and field parameters.