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Abstract
Historical flashlights are presented on the real life background of the discovery in 1964 of the first ferromagnetic/ferroelectric single crystalline material, Nickel Iodine Boracite. The subsequent stony trail until support for scientific follow-up, finally obtained in 1978, is summarised. Leaving out intermediate research milestones, the present day state-of-the-art is succinctly resumed, culminating in the insight that a variety of boracite phases are ferroelastic, ferroelectric, ferromagnetic and ferrotoroidic in the same phase, representing herewith useful model substances for studying a high degree of multiferroic complexity.
Acknowledgment
Last but not least, special thanks are due to Christopher Shorrock for polishing the English of the text.
Dedicated to Anne-Catherine, Felix, Beatrice, Markus and Christian
Notes
Time of the personal union (1714–1837) of English kings of the House of Brunswick-Hanover. The “Lasius Engineer and Architect Dynasty”: Georg Sigmund Otto Lasius (1752–1833), surveying engineer in the Hanover “Ingenieurcorps” of the army; from 1804 onwards serving in same function for the Duke of Oldenburg, from 1810 to 1813 under Jérôme Napoléon Bonaparte (1784–1860), when the King of Westphalia (1807–1813), charged with the elaboration of a Seine-Baltic Sea canal project. Ernst Friedrich Otto Lasius (1797–1888), son of G.S.O. Lasius, civil engineer (“Baurat”) at Oldenburg, Westphalia. Georg Christian Lasius (1835–1928), grandson of G.S.O. Lasius, professor of architecture at the Federal Polytechnic Institute Zurich, Switzerland.[Hauptstaatsarchiv Hannover; GTA-Archiv, ETH-Zurich].
A cousin of Walther Rathenau, economy and foreign minister in the «Weimar Republic», murdered in 1922 by two right wing extremists
Direction de Recherches et Moyens d’Essais.
You cannot have your cake and eat it.
