No Arabic abstract
The Haldane spin-chain compound, Tb2BaNiO5, with two antiferromagnetic transitions, one at T1=63K, and the other at T2=25K, has been recently shown by us to be an exotic multiferroic below T2. Here, we report the results of our investigations of Sr doping at the Ba site by magnetization, heat-capacity, magnetoelectric (MDE), and pyrocurrent measurements. An intriguing finding, which we stress, is that the ferroelectricity is lost even for a doping level of 10 atomic percent, though magnetic ordering prevails. The doped specimens however retain significant magnetodielectric behaviour, but with reduced magnitudes and qualitative changes with respect to the behaviour of the parent compound. This implies that ferroelectric order is also crucial for the anomalously large MDE in the parent compound, in addition to the role of 4f single-ion anisotropy.
The orthorhombic Haldane spin chain compound Tb2BaNiO5 (Neel order, TN1= 63 K) has been shown to be an exotic multiferroic system below (TN2) 25 K due to various fascinating features, pointing to a strong potential for the advancement of concepts in this field. In particular, the rare-earth ions play a direct decisive role unlike in many other well known multiferroic materials and there appears to be a critical canting angle, developing below TN2, subtended by Tb 4f and Ni 3d moments to trigger this cross coupling phenomenon. However, for a small replacement of Sr for Ba, viz. in Tb2Ba0.9Sr0.1NiO5, ferroelectricity was reported to get destroyed, but retaining magnetic features at (TN1) 55 K and (TN2) 14 K. In this article, we address the origin of suppression of multiferrocity in this Sr doped system through neutron diffraction studies and density functional theory calculations. We find that, unlike in Tb2BaNiO5, there is no pronounced change in the relative canting angle of the magnetic moments around TN2 and that the absolute value of this parameter down to 2 K fails to exceed the critical value noted for the parent, thereby explaining the origin of destruction of magnetoelectric coupling in the Sr doped material. This finding renders strong support to the proposal of possible existence of critical canting angle, at least in some cases, to induce multiferroicity, apart from serving as a route to engineer multiferroic materials for applications.
How the magnetoelectric coupling actually occurs on a microscopic level in multiferroic BiFeO3 is not well known. By using the high-resolution single crystal neutron diffraction techniques, we have determined the electric polarization of each individual elements of BiFeO3, and concluded that the magnetostrictive coupling suppresses the electric polarization at the Fe site below TN. This negative magnetoelectric coupling appears to outweigh the spin current contributions arising from the cycloid spin structure, which should produce a positive magnetoelectric coupling.
Effects of Sr substitution at A-site in ordered perovskite Ba3-xSrxMnNb2O9 (x = 1 and 3) have been investigated using X-ray diffraction, magnetization, dielectric/magnetodielectric and neutron diffraction measurements. The parent compound Ba3MnNb2O9 having a large spin (S=5/2) is known to exhibit type-II multiferroic properties with quasi 2D triangular lattice antiferromagnetic ground state. A slight perturbation in exchange interaction due to substitution of smaller size isovalent ion at the A-site in Ba3-xSrxMnNb2O9 (x = 1 and 3) has been found to alter the ground states drastically and hence the multiferroicity. The crucial role of various fluctuations (quantum and/or thermal), weak lattice distortion induced by Sr-substitution and slight imbalance between different fluctuations in determining the ground states and the multiferroicity is discussed and compared with the results of smaller spin compounds (S = 1/2 or 1).
Spin-dependent electric dipole operators are investigated group-theoretically for the emergence of an electric dipole induced by a single spin or by two spins, where the spin dependences are completely classified up to the quadratic order. For a single spin, a product of spin operators behaves as an even-parity electric quadrupole operator, which differs from an odd-parity electric dipole. The lack of the inversion symmetry allows the even- and odd-parity mixing, which leads to the electric dipole described by the electric quadruple operators. Point-group tables are given for classification of the possible spin-dependent electric dipoles and for the qualitative analysis of multiferroic properties, such as an emergent electric dipole moment coexisting with a magnetic moment, electromagnon excitation, and directional dichroism. The results can be applied to a magnetic ion in crystals or embedded in molecules at a site without the inversion symmetry. In the presence of an inversion symmetry, the electric dipole does not appear for a single spin. This is not the case for the electric dipole induced by two spins with antisymmetric spin dependence, which is known as vector spin chirality, in the presence of the inversion center between the two spins. In the absence of the inversion center, symmetric spin-dependent electric dipoles are also relevant. The detailed analysis of various symmetries of two-spin states is applied to spin dimer systems and the related multiferroic properties.
The Loewdin orthogonalization procedure being the well-known technique, particularly in quantum chemistry, however, gives rise to novel effects missed in earlier studies. Making use of the technique of irreducible tensorial operators we have developed a regular procedure for account of the orthogonalization effects. For illustration we address the emergence of a specific magnetoelectric coupling for noncentrosymmetric 3d or 4f ions.