Coupled multiferroic domain switching in the canted conical spin spiral system Mn2GeO4

T. Honda, J. S. White, A. B. Harris, L. C. Chapon, A. Fennell, B. Roessli, O. Zaharko, Y. Murakami, M. Kenzelmann () and T. Kimura ()
Additional contact information
T. Honda: Graduate School of Engineering Science, Osaka University
J. S. White: Laboratory for Neutron Scattering and Imaging (LNS), Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI)
A. B. Harris: University of Pennsylvania
L. C. Chapon: Institut Laue-Langevin
A. Fennell: Laboratory for Neutron Scattering and Imaging (LNS), Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI)
B. Roessli: Laboratory for Neutron Scattering and Imaging (LNS), Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI)
O. Zaharko: Laboratory for Neutron Scattering and Imaging (LNS), Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI)
Y. Murakami: Condensed Matter Research Center, Institute of Materials Structure Science, High Energy Accelerator Research Organization
M. Kenzelmann: Laboratory for Scientific Developments and Novel Materials (LDM), Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI)
T. Kimura: Graduate School of Engineering Science, Osaka University

Nature Communications, 2017, vol. 8, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract Despite remarkable progress in developing multifunctional materials, spin-driven ferroelectrics featuring both spontaneous magnetization and electric polarization are still rare. Among such ferromagnetic ferroelectrics are conical spin spiral magnets with a simultaneous reversal of magnetization and electric polarization that is still little understood. Such materials can feature various multiferroic domains that complicates their study. Here we study the multiferroic domains in ferromagnetic ferroelectric Mn2GeO4 using neutron diffraction, and show that it features a double-Q conical magnetic structure that, apart from trivial 180o commensurate magnetic domains, can be described by ferromagnetic and ferroelectric domains only. We show unconventional magnetoelectric couplings such as the magnetic-field-driven reversal of ferroelectric polarization with no change of spin-helicity, and present a phenomenological theory that successfully explains the magnetoelectric coupling. Our measurements establish Mn2GeO4 as a conceptually simple multiferroic in which the magnetic-field-driven flop of conical spin spirals leads to the simultaneous reversal of magnetization and electric polarization.

Date: 2017
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms15457 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:8:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms15457

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms15457

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().