Magnetically Driven Ferroelectric Order in Ni3V2O8

G. Lawes, A. B. Harris, T. Kimura, N. Rogado, R. J. Cava, A. Aharony, O. Entin-Wohlman, T. Yildirim, M. Kenzelmann, C. Broholm, and A. P. Ramirez
Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 087205 – Published 19 August 2005

Abstract

We show that long-range ferroelectric and incommensurate magnetic order appear simultaneously in a single phase transition in Ni3V2O8. The temperature and magnetic-field dependence of the spontaneous polarization show a strong coupling between magnetic and ferroelectric orders. We determine the magnetic symmetry using Landau theory for continuous phase transitions, which shows that the spin structure alone can break spatial inversion symmetry leading to ferroelectric order. This phenomenological theory explains our experimental observation that the spontaneous polarization is restricted to lie along the crystal b axis and predicts that the magnitude should be proportional to a magnetic order parameter.

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  • Received 21 March 2005

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.95.087205

©2005 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

G. Lawes1,*, A. B. Harris2, T. Kimura1, N. Rogado3,†, R. J. Cava3, A. Aharony4, O. Entin-Wohlman4, T. Yildirim5, M. Kenzelmann5,6, C. Broholm5,6, and A. P. Ramirez1,7

  • 1Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545, USA
  • 2Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 19104, USA
  • 3Department of Chemistry and Princeton Materials Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA
  • 4School of Physics and Astronomy, Raymond and Beverly Sackler Faculty of Exact Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel
  • 5NIST Center for Neutron Research, Gaithersburg, Maryland 20899, USA
  • 6Department of Physics and Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland 21218, USA
  • 7Bell Labs, Lucent Technologies, 600 Mountain Avenue, Murray Hill, New Jersey 07974, USA

  • *Present address: Department of Physics, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48201.
  • Present address: DuPont Research and Development, Experimental Station, Wilmington, DE 19880.

See Also

Magnetic Inversion Symmetry Breaking and Ferroelectricity in TbMnO3

M. Kenzelmann, A. B. Harris, S. Jonas, C. Broholm, J. Schefer, S. B. Kim, C. L. Zhang, S.-W. Cheong, O. P. Vajk, and J. W. Lynn
Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 087206 (2005)

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Vol. 95, Iss. 8 — 19 August 2005

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