Searching for new ferroelectrics and multiferroics: a user’s point of view

A perspective on computational studies of ferroelectrics and multiferroics is given that emphasises what has yet to be done, along with some subtleties in previously studied systems. Beginning with the extensive data-mining studies of Abrahams and more recently, Rabe, a survey is given of magnetostrictive effects in antiferromagnetic antiferroelectrics (after Toledano and Toledano), which has an nonmagnetic analogy in the antiferroelectric phase of tris-sarcosine calcium chloride and a reminder of the unusual spin–phonon coupling of Holden et al. in systems such as KCoF₃ and EuTiO₃. Attention is also paid to field-temperature phase diagrams, finite non-periodic boundary conditions, and processing-dependent structures.