Ferroelectricity induced by ferriaxial crystal rotation and spin helicity in a B-site-ordered double-perovskite multiferroic In2NiMnO6


Abstract in English

We have performed dielectric measurements and neutron diffraction experiments on the double perovskite In2NiMnO6. A ferroelectric polarization, P ~ 30 {mu}C/m2, is observed in a polycrystalline sample below TN = 26 K where a magnetic phase ransition occurs. The neutron diffraction experiment demonstrates that a complex noncollinear magnetic structure with cycloidal and proper screw components appears below TN, which has the incommensurate propagation vector k = (ka,0,ks; ka ~ 0.274, ks ~ -0.0893). The established magnetic point group 21 implies that the macroscopic ferroelectric polarization is along the monoclinic b axis. Recent theories based on the inverse Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya effect allow us to specify two distinct contributions to the polarization of In2NiMnO6. One of them is associated with the cycloidal component, p1 ~ rij x (Si x Sj), and the other with the proper screw component, p2 ~ [rij (Si x Sj )]A. The latter is explained by coupling between spin helicity and ferriaxial crystal rotation with macroscopic ferroaxial vector A, characteristic of the B-site ordered perovskite systems with out-of-plane octahedral tilting.

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