Materials with coexisting and coupled ferroelectric and magnetic orders are rare. Here we show, using density functional theory calculations, that inducing FeLa antisites into non-ferroelectric and antiferromagnetic LaFeO3 renders the material at the same time ferroelectric and ferrimagnetic. Even more excitingly, we observe a direct coupling between the ferroelectric and ferrimagnetic polarization, the latter being switchable by the former. While on average the magnetic moments of antisites would cancel, we envision that preparing defective LaFeO3 under simultaneous electric and magnetic fields will lead to a net magnetic moment due to magnetic domain reconfiguration. Moreover, ferroelectric switching under a static magnetic field can lead to 180∘ switching of the antiferromagnetic order in LaFeO3.
@article{arxiv.2507.21681,
title = {Multiferroicity and 180$^\circ$ domain switching in LaFeO$_3$ via Antisite Defects},
author = {Souren Majani and Harish K. Singh and Ulrich Aschauer},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2507.21681},
year = {2025}
}