Observation of multiferroic properties in a CdTe:Mn thin film grown by pulsed laser deposition techniques

We report multiferroic properties in a 3% Mn-doped CdTe (CdTe:Mn or CTM) thin film grown in a co-deposition system constituting pulsed laser deposition and radio frequency (RF) sputtering, in which the Mn concentration was tuned by the sputtering rate of Mn. We observed a clear ferroelectric hysteresis loop in the CTM thin film with remanent polarization of 3.5 μC/cm2 and ferromagnetism in the film at a temperature lower than the Curie temperature of 15 K. Both features show direct evidence of multiferroics in the CTM thin film.