No Arabic abstract
An atomistic effective Hamiltonian is used to compute electrocaloric (EC) effects in rare-earth substituted BiFeO$_{3}$ multiferroics. A phenomenological model is then developed to interpret these computations, with this model indicating that the EC coefficient is the sum of two terms, that involve electric quantities (polarization, dielectric response), the antiferromagnetic order parameter, and the coupling between polarization and antiferromagnetic order. The first one depends on the polarization and dielectric susceptibility, has the analytical form previously demonstrated for ferroelectrics, and is thus enhanced at the ferroelectric Curie temperature. The second one explicitly involves the dielectric response, the magnetic order parameter and a specific magnetoelectric coupling, and generates a peak of the EC response at the Neel temperature. These atomistic results and phenomenological model may be put in use to optimize EC coefficients.
Electrically driven thermal changes in PbSc0.5Ta0.5O3 bulk ceramics are investigated using temperature and electric-field dependent differential scanning calorimetry and infrared thermometry. On first application and removal of electric field, we find asymmetries in the magnitude of isothermal entropy change $Delta$ S and adiabatic temperature change $Delta$ T, due to hysteresis. On subsequent field cycling, we find further asymmetries in the magnitude of $Delta$ T due to non-linearity in the isofield legs of entropy-temperature plots.
Physical nature of giant magnetocaloric and electrocaloric effects, MCE and ECE, is explained in terms of the new fundamentals of phase transitions, ferromagnetism and ferroelectricity. It is the latent heat of structural (nucleation-and-growth) phase transitions from a normal crystal state to the orientation-disordered crystal (ODC) state where the constituent particles are engaged in thermal rotation. The ferromagnetism or ferroelectricity of the material provides the capability to trigger the structural phase transition by application, accordingly, of magnetic or electric field.
Various phenomena related to inhomogeneous magnetoelectric interaction are considered. The interrelation between spatial modulation of order parameter and electric polarization, known as flexoelectric effect in liquid crystals, in the case of magnetic media appears in a form of electric polarization induced by spin modulation and vice versa. This flexomagnetoelectric interaction is also related to the influence of ferroelectric domain structure on antiferromagnetic vector distribution, and to the magnetoelectric properties of micromagnetic structures. The influence of inhomogeneous magnetoelectric interaction on dynamic properties of multiferroics, particularly magnon spectra is also considered.
Atomistic effective Hamiltonian simulations are used to investigate electrocaloric (EC) effects in the lead-free Ba(Zr$_{0.5}$Ti$_{0.5}$)O$_{3}$ (BZT) relaxor ferroelectric. We find that the EC coefficient varies non-monotonically with the field at any temperature, presenting a maximum that can be traced back to the behavior of BZTs polar nanoregions. We also introduce a simple Landau-based model that reproduces the EC behavior of BZT as a function of field and temperature, and which is directly applicable to other compounds. Finally, we confirm that, for low temperatures (i.e., in non-ergodic conditions), the usual indirect approach to measure the EC response provides an estimate that differs quantitatively from a direct evaluation of the field-induced temperature change.
The key physical property of multiferroic materials is the existence of a coupling between magnetism and polarization, i.e. magnetoelectricity. The origin and manifestations of magnetoelectricity can be very different in the available plethora of multiferroic systems, with multiple possible mechanisms hidden behind the phenomena. In this Review, we describe the fundamental physics that causes magnetoelectricity from a theoretical viewpoint. The present review will focus on the main stream physical mechanisms in both single phase multiferroics and magnetoelectric heterostructures. The most recent tendencies addressing possible new magnetoelectric mechanisms will also be briefly outlined.