Professor Paolo G. Radaelli OSI

Abstract:

We investigate polarization memory effects in single-crystal CuFeO2, which has a magnetically induced ferroelectric phase at low temperatures and applied B fields between 7.5 and 13 T. Following electrical poling of the ferroelectric phase, we find that the nonpolar collinear antiferromagnetic ground state at B=0 T retains a strong memory of the polarization magnitude and direction, such that upon reentering the ferroelectric phase a net polarization of comparable magnitude to the initial polarization is recovered in the absence of external bias. This memory effect is very robust: in pulsed-magnetic-field measurements, several pulses into the ferroelectric phase with reverse bias are required to switch the polarization direction, with significant switching only seen after the system is driven out of the ferroelectric phase and ground state either magnetically (by application of B>13 T) or thermally. The memory effect is also largely insensitive to the magnetoelastic domain composition, since no change in the memory effect is observed for a sample driven into a single-domain state by application of stress in the [110] direction. On the basis of Monte Carlo simulations of the ground-state spin configurations, we propose that the memory effect is due to the existence of helical domain walls within the nonpolar collinear antiferromagnetic ground state, which would retain the helicity of the polar phase for certain magnetothermal histories.

Abstract:

We present a thorough density functional theory study of the magneto-electric (ME) effect in Cr2O3. The spin-lattice ME tensor α was determined in the low-field and spin flop (SF) phases, using the method of dynamical magnetic charges, and found to be the sum of three distinct components. Two of them, a large relativistic "cycloidal" term and a small longitudinal term, are independent on the spin orientation. The third, only active in the SF phases is also of relativistic origin and arises from magnetic-field-induced chirality, leading to a non-toroidal ME response.

Abstract:

Through a combination of neutron diffraction and Landau theory we describe the spin ordering in the ground state of the quadruple perovskite manganite CaMn7O12 - a magnetic multiferroic supporting an incommensurate orbital density wave that onsets above the magnetic ordering temperature, TN1 = 90 K. The multi-k magnetic structure in the ground state was found to be a nearly-constant-moment helix with modulated spin helicity, which oscillates in phase with the orbital occupancies on the Mn3+ sites via trilinear magneto-orbital coupling. Our phenomenological model also shows that, above TN2 = 48 K, the primary magnetic order parameter is locked into the orbital wave by an admixture of helical and collinear spin density wave structures. Furthermore, our model naturally explains the lack of a sharp dielectric anomaly at TN1 and the unusual temperature dependence of the electrical polarisation.