Standing on successful first principles predictions for new functional ferroelectric materials, a number of new ferroelectrics have been experimentally discovered. Utilizing trilinear coupling of two types of octahedron rotations, hybrid improper fer
roelectricity has been theoretically predicted in ordered perovskites and the Ruddlesden-Popper compounds (Ca$_{3}$Ti$_{2}$O$_{7}$, Ca$_{3}$Mn$_{2}$O$_{7}$, and (Ca/Sr/Ba)$_{3}$(Sn/Zr/Ge)$_{2}$O$_{7}$). However, the ferroelectricity of these compounds has never been experimentally confirmed and even their polar nature has been under debate. Here we provide the first experimental demonstration of room-temperature switchable polarization in the bulk crystals of Ca$_{3}$Ti$_{2}$O$_{7}$ as well as Sr-doped Ca$_{3}$Ti$_{2}$O$_{7}$. In addition, (Ca,Sr)$_{3}$Ti$_{2}$O$_{7}$ is found to exhibit an intriguing ferroelectric domain structure resulting from orthorhombic twins and (switchable) planar polarization. The planar domain structure accompanies abundant charged domain walls with conducting head-to-head and insulating tail-to-tail configurations, which exhibit two-order-of-magnitude conduction difference. These discoveries provide new research opportunities not only on new stable ferroelectrics of Ruddlesden-Popper compounds, but also on meandering conducting domain walls formed by planar polarization.
Selenium (Se) substitution drastically increases the transition temperature of iridium ditelluride (IrTe$_{2}$) to a diamagnetic superstructure from 278 K to 560 K. Transmission electron microscopy experiments revealed that this enhancement is accomp
anied by the evolution of non-sinusoidal structure modulations from $q = 1/5(10bar{1})$- to $q = 1/6(10bar{1})$-types. These comprehensive results are consistent with the concept of the destabilization of polymeric Te-Te bonds at the transition, the temperature of which is increased by chemical and hydrostatic pressure and by the substitution of Te with the more electronegative Se. This temperature-induced depolymerization transition in IrTe$_{2}$ is unique in crystalline inorganic solids.
Comparative studies of magnetoelectric susceptibility ($alpha$), magnetization ($M$), and magnetostriction ($u$) in TbMn$_{2}$O$_{5}$ reveal that the increment of $M$ owing to the field-induced Tb$^{3+}$ spin alignment coins a field-asymmetric line s
hape in the $alpha(H)$ curve, being conspicuous in a low temperature incommensurate phase but persistently subsisting in the entire ferroelectric phase. Correlations among electric polarization, $u$, and $M^{2}$ variation represent linear relationships, unambiguously showing the significant role of Tb magnetoelastic effects on the low field magnetoelectric phenomena of TbMn$_{2}$O$_{5}$. An effective free energy capturing the observed experimental features is also suggested.
The transverse and longitudinal magnetoelectric susceptibilities (MES) were quantitatively determined for (001) heteroepitaxial BiFeO$_{3}$-CoFe$_{2}$O$_{4}$ nanostructures. Both of these MES values were sharply enhanced at magnetic fields below 6 kO
e and revealed asymmetric lineshapes with respect to the dc magnetic field, demonstrating the strain-induced magnetoelectric effect. The maximum transverse MES, which reached as high as $sim$60 mV/cm Oe, was about five times larger than the longitudinal MES. This observation signifies that transverse magnetostriction of the CoFe$_{2}$O$_{4}$ nanopillars is enhanced more than the bulk value due to preferred magnetic domain alignment along the [001] direction coming from compressive, heteroepitaxial strain.
We have systematically investigated the doping and the directional dependence of the gap structure in the 122-type iron pnictide superconductors by point contact Andreev reflection spectroscopy. The studies were performed on single crystals of Ba1-xK
xFe2As2 (x = 0.29, 0.49, and 0.77) and SrFe1.74Co0.26As2 with a sharp tip of Pb or Au pressed along the c-axis or the ab-plane direction. The conductance spectra obtained on highly transparent contacts clearly show evidence of a robust superconducting gap. The normalized curves can be well described by the Blonder-Tinkham-Klapwijk model with a lifetime broadening. The determined gap value scales very well with the transition temperature, giving the 2{Delta}/kBTC value of ~ 3.1. The results suggest the presence of a universal coupling behavior in this class of iron pnictides over a broad doping range and independent of the sign of the doping. Moreover, conductance spectra obtained on c-axis junctions and ab-plane junctions indicate that the observed gap is isotropic in these superconductors.
We show that low field magnetoelectric (ME) properties of helimagnets Ba0.5Sr1.5Zn2(Fe1-xAlx)12O22 can be efficiently tailored by Al-substitution level. As x increases, the critical magnetic field for switching electric polarization is systematically
reduced from ~1 T down to ~1 mT, and the ME susceptibility is greatly enhanced to reach a giant value of 2.0 x 10^4 ps/m at an optimum x = 0.08. We find that control of nontrivial orbital moment in the octahedral Fe sites through the Al-substitution is crucial for fine tuning of magnetic anisotropy and obtaining the conspicuously improved ME characteristics.
We have fabricated c-axis Josephson junctions on single crystals of (Ba,K)Fe2As2 by using Pb as the counter electrode in two geometries, planar and point contact. Junctions in both geometries show resistively shunted junction I-V curves below the Tc
of the counter electrode. Microwave induced steps were observed in the I-V curves, and the critical currents are suppressed with an in-plane magnetic field in a manner consistent with the small junction limit. ICRN products of up to 0.3 mV have been observed in these junctions at 4.2 K. The observation of Josephson coupling along the c-axis between (Ba,K)Fe2As2 and a conventional superconductor suggests the existence of a s-wave superconducting order parameter in this class of iron pnictide superconductors.
Measurements of magnetotransport and current-voltage (I-V) characteristics up to 9 T were used to investigate the vortex phase diagram of an under-doped Measurements of magnetotransport and current-voltage (I-V) characteristics up to 9 T were used to
investigate the vortex phase diagram of an under-doped (Ba,K)Fe2As2 single crystal with Tc=26.2 K. It is found that the anisotropy ratio of the upper critical field Hc2 decreases from 4 to 2.8 with decreasing temperature from Tc to 24.8 K. Consistent with the vortex-glass theory, the I-V curves measured at H=9 T can be well scaled with the vortex-glass transition temperature of Tg=20.7 K and critical exponents z=4.1 and v=1. Analyses in different magnetic fields produced almost identical critical exponent values, with some variation in Tg, corroborating the existence of the vortex-glass transition in this under-doped (Ba,K)Fe2As2 single crystal up to 9 T. A vortex phase diagram is presented, based on the evolution of Tg and Hc2 with magnetic field.
