No Arabic abstract
Ultrasonic velocity measurements on the magnetoelectric multiferroic compound CuFeO2 reveal that the antiferromagnetic transition observed at TN1 = 14 K might be induced by an R-3m -> C2/m pseudoproper ferroelastic transition (G. Quirion, M. J. Tagore, M. L. Plumer, O. A. Petrenko, Phys. Rev. B 77, 094111 (2008)). In that case, the group theory states that the order parameter associated with the structural transition must belong to a two dimensional irreducible representation Eg (x^2 - y^2, xy). Since this type of transition can be driven by a Raman Eg mode, we performed Raman scattering measurements on CuFeO2 between 5 K and 290 K. Considering that the isostructural multiferroic compound CuCrO2 might show similar structural deformations at the antiferromagnetic transition TN1 = 24.3 K, Raman measurements have also been performed for comparison. At ambient temperature, the Raman modes in CuFeO2 are observed at omega_Eg = 352 cm^-1 and omega_Ag = 692 cm^-1, while these modes are detected at omega_E_g = 457 cm^-1 and omega_Ag = 709 cm^-1 in CuCrO2. The analysis of the temperature dependence of modes shows that the frequency of all modes increases down to 5 K. This typical behavior can be attributed to anharmonic phonon-phonon interactions. These results clearly indicate that none of the Raman active modes observed in CuFeO2 and CuCrO2 drive the pseudoproper ferroelastic transition observed at the Neel temperature TN1. Finally, a broad band at about 550 cm^-1 observed in the magnetoelectric phase of CuCrO2 below TN2 could be attributed to a magnon mode.
The coupling between ferroelectric and magnetic orders in multiferroic materials and the nature of magnetoelectric (ME) effects are enduring experimental challenges. In this work, we have studied the response of magnetization to ferroelectric switching in thin-film hexagonal YbFeO3, a prototypical improper multiferroic. The bulk ME decoupling and potential domain-wall ME coupling were revealed using x-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) measurements with in-situ ferroelectric polarization switching. Our Landau theory analysis suggests that the bulk ME-coupled ferroelectric switching path has a higher energy barrier than that of the ME-decoupled path; this extra barrier energy is also too high to be reduced by the magneto-static energy in the process of breaking single magnetic domains into multi-domains. In addition, the reduction of magnetization around the ferroelectric domain walls predicted by the Landau theory may induce the domain-wall ME coupling in which the magnetization is correlated with the density of ferroelectric domain walls. These results provide important experimental evidence and theoretical insights into the rich possibilities of ME couplings in hexagonal ferrites, such as manipulating the magnetic states by an electric field.
This paper presents results of a recent study of multiferroic CCO by means of single crystal neutron diffraction. This system has two close magnetic phase transitions at $T sub{N1}=24.2$ K and $T sub{N2}=23.6$ K. The low temperature magnetic structure below $T sub{N2}$ is unambiguously determined to be a fully 3-dimensional proper screw. Between $T sub{N1}$ and $T sub{N2}$ antiferromagnetic order is found that is essentially 2-dimensional. In this narrow temperature range, magnetic near neighbor correlations are still long range in the ($H,K$) plane, whereas nearest neighbors along the $L$-direction are uncorrelated. Thus, the multiferroic state is realized only in the low-temperature 3-dimensional state and not in the 2-dimensional state.
Magnetic, dielectric and calorimetric studies on 0.9BiFeO3-0.1BaTiO3 indicate strong magnetoelectric coupling. XRD studies reveal a very remarkable change in the rhombohedral distortion angle and a significant shift in the atomic positions at the magnetic Tc due to an isostructural phase transition. The calculated polarization using Rietveld refined atomic positions scales linearly with magnetization. Our results provide the first unambiguous evidence for magnetoelectric coupling of intrinsic multiferroic origin in a BiFeO3 based system.
Polycrystalline samples of CuCrO2 were synthesized by solid state reaction method. Temperature dependent dielectric measurements, synchrotron x-ray diffraction (SXRD), pyroelectric current and Raman measurements have been performed on these samples. Evidences of the presence of relaxor type ferroelectricity, which otherwise have gone unnoticed in CuCrO2 system (a member of delafossite family) near room temperature, have been presented. Presence of broad maximum in dielectric permittivity and its frequency dispersion indicates relaxor-type ferroelectricity in CuCrO2 near room temperature. Careful analysis of temperature dependent SXRD data and Raman spectroscopic data indicates that the distorted CrO6 octahdera, is giving rise to strain in the sample. Due to this strain, polar regions are forming in an otherwise non-polar matrix, which is giving rise to relaxor type ferroelectricity in the sample. Regularization of CrO6 octahedra and disappearance of disorder induced peak in Raman spectra at high temperatures could be the reason behind observed dielectric anomaly in this sample. Present investigations propose that relaxor type ferroelectricity near room temperature is an inherent property of the CuCrO2 system, making it a fascinating material to be explored further.
Electric and magnetic properties of multiferroic GdMn2O5 in external magnetic fields were investigated to map out the magnetoelectric phases in this material. Due to strong magnetoelectric coupling, the dielectric permittivity is highly sensitive to phase boundaries in GdMn2O5, which allowed to construct the field-temperature phase diagrams. Several phase transitions are observed which are strongly field-dependent with respect to field orientation and strength. The phase diagram for a magnetic field along the crystallographic a-axis corresponds well to a polarization step, as induced by 90 degree rotation of Gd magnetic moments. Our results support the model of two ferroelectric sublattices, Mn-Mn and Gd-Mn with strong R-Mn (4f-3d) interaction for the polarization in RMn2O5.