Multiferroic nature of charge-ordered rare earth manganites

Charge-ordered rare earth manganites Nd 0.5 Ca 0.5 MnO 3 , La 0.25 Nd 0.25 Ca 0.5 MnO 3 , Pr 0.7 Ca 0.3 MnO 3 and Pr 0.6 Ca 0.4 MnO 3 are found to exhibit dielectric constant anomalies around the charge-ordering or the magnetic transition temperatures.Magnetic fields have a marked effect on the dielectric properties, indicating the presence of coupling between the magnetic and electrical order parameters.The observation of magnetoferroelectricity in these manganites is in accord with the recent theoretical predictions of Khomskii and coworkers.