Credit: Image courtesy of Megan Holtz
New materials with unique and useful properties can be made by taking materials with different desired properties and layering them at the atomic level. In this research, scientists made new materials by alternating layers of a material with special magnetic properties (LuFe2O4 (left)) and a material with special electronic properties (LuFeO3 (right)). Panels a-j show high-resolution images of the resulting “superlattice” structures for materials with 1 (a) to 10 (j) atomic sheets in the layer made up of the ferroelectric LuFeO3. The more atomic sheets in the layer, the more atomic level “rumpling” of the structure — indicated by the wavy appearance in the images — that drives the superlattice properties to allow electrically controlled magnetism at room temperature. Lutetium (Lu), iron (Fe), and oxygen (O) atoms are colored turquoise, yellow, and brown, respectively.