Visible-light controlled ferroelectricity and magnetoelectric coupling in multiferroic BiCoO₃ nanoribbons

Multiferroic materials hold promising potential for multifunctional applications because they simultaneously possess ferromagnetism and ferroelectricity. Moreover, the magnetoelectric coupling in multiferroic materials is especially important for basic research, and it has significant applications in nonvolatile multiple-state memory devices. In this work, for the first time, we report that visible light can control the ferroelectricity and magnetoelectric coupling in BiCoO₃ nanoribbons. The relative visible-light-induced improvement of the saturated ferroelectric polarization is more than 60%. The relative visible-light-induced enhancement of the magnetoelectric effect is about 10%, indicating that light offers additional degree of freedom in controlling the coupling between ferromagnetism and ferroelectricity.