Photo-regulated magnetism and photoferroelectric effect in BiFeO₃ nanoribbons at room temperature

The materials, in which multiple properties are coupled, are greatly important for basic research and multifunctional application. Herein we report on the observation, for the first time, of photo-regulated magnetism and photoferroelectric effect in a single-phase material (the single-crystalline multiferroic BiFeO₃ nanoribbons) at room temperature. Our result presented in this paper opens a new route for multifunctionality where optical property, magnetic polarization and ferroelectric polarization can be controlled simultaneously by white-light and magnetic-field and electric-field.