Decade of multiferroic researches

Multiferroicity as one of favorable topics in condensed matters and materials physics has been receiving attentions since 1950s. Intensive research activities, however, were revived by two milestones as accomplished in 2003, sustaining for more than ten years. One of the milestones is the preparation of epitaxial BiFeO3 thin films and demonstration of the magnetoelectric effect. The physics at the multiferroic domain level is believed to fill the gap between the phenomenological theories and microscopic mechanisms. The other goes to the colossal magnetoelectric effect in manganite TbMnO3, which has paved a roadmap towards a class of multiferroic compounds with substantial significance of physics. Unveiling every particular features the explorations on multiferroic thin films and heterostructures, while those discoveries associated with multiferroic compounds evidence a model scenario of touching those hidden physics and enhanced properties. Asubstantial review of the state-of-arts and future perspectives benefits not only to the community of multiferroic researches. In this article, as an introduction of this special section on multiferroicity,we present a brief review of those icebergs and beyond coordinating the multiferroic researches in the past decade. It is our expectation that the golden decade is a long period of division and multiferroicity will be eventually a unique story with impacting, and surely, self-consistent physics.