We present a first principles study of an unusual heterostructure, an atomic-scale checkerboard of BiFeO3-BiMnO3, and compare its properties to the two bulk constituent materials, BiFeO3 and BiMnO3. The "nanocheckerboard" is found to have a multiferroic ground state with the desired properties of each constituent: polar and ferrimagnetic due to BiFeO3 and BiMnO3, respectively. The effect of B-site cation ordering on magnetic ordering in the BiFeO3-BiMnO3 system is studied. The checkerboard geometry is seen to give rise to a a novel magnetostructural effect that is neither present in the bulk constituent materials, nor in the layered BiFeO3-BiMnO3 superlattice.
@article{arxiv.1006.4648,
title = {Multiferroic BiFeO3-BiMnO3 Nanocheckerboard From First Principles},
author = {L. Palova and P. Chandra and K. M. Rabe},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1006.4648},
year = {2015}
}