Multiferroic behavior observed in highly orientated Mn-doped BaTiO ₃ thin films

Highly orientated Mn-doped BaTiO₃ thin films have been prepared on Nb-doped SrTiO₃ substrate by pulsed laser deposition. Structural and electrical studies indicate that pure and Mn-doped BaTiO₃ thin films show single phase character and good ferroelectric performance. All of the Mn-doped BaTiO₃ thin films show obvious room-temperature ferromagnetism and the magnetization increases with the growing concentration of doped Mn. A bound magnetic polaron model was proposed to understand the observed ferromagnetic behavior of resistive Mn-doped BaTiO₃ thin films. Our results demonstrate that ferromagnetism can be induced in the ferroelectric BaTiO₃ film, which makes it a promising single-phase multiferroic.