Australian researchers are embarking on a project to create better-performing and more capable information technologies.

Magnetic materials are everywhere, but many of the mechanisms controlling their behaviour are not well understood.

Researcher James Hester from the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation is leading a team to improve on this lack of knowledge.

Magnetic and ferroelectric materials are essential components in dozens of electronic devices and machines we use every day - everything from speakers, electric motors and power plugs to computer hard drives and automatic teller machine cards.

Ferroelectric materials are not only used in some types of Random Access Memory (RAM) devices and in Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) equipment, but also for electronic toll collections on toll roads, security and access management systems and for tracking goods and animals.

Magnetism and ferroelectricity are usually mutually exclusive, but there are a handful of materials that are known to possess both magnetic and ferroelectric properties – they are called ‘multiferroic’.

But multiferroic materials are also unpredictable, and difficult to use because it is difficult to find, maintain, and manipulate their unstable forms.

Multiferroic materials are the subject of ANSTO’s scheme, which the experts say will potentially lead to multiferroics with enhanced properties.