Ferroelectrics, multiferroics and artifacts: Lozenge-shaped hysteresis and things that go bump in the night

This review summarizes dielectric studies and related experiments on ferroelectrics and multiferroics about which there has been considerable controversy in the literature, sometimes at unusually impolite and unprofessional levels. In addition it focuses attention on a new anomalous phenomenon – that of ferroelectric hysteresis loops P(E) that are parallelograms with straight sides. In some cases materials have been considered to be multiferroic...