Identification and control of domain wall patterning in spinel ferrimagnets

Spinel antiferromagnets have long been at the center of research into strong spin-lattice coupling and orbital effects. Among other properties, these materials frequently demonstrate concomitant magnetic and structural phase transitions, heightened magneto-elastic or dielectric response functions, and low-temperature multiferroism. There is very little agreement on the microscopic picture to be associated with these effects, but recent work has shown that mesoscale inhomogeneity can play a key role in raising the susceptibilities of complex materials to external perturbations.