Abstract
Low-dimensional frustrated antiferromagnet is a good model system to study exotic quantum physics. Here we report the observation of half magnetization plateau and ferroelectricity which emerge simultaneously in the bond-alternating skew-chain compounds induced by high magnetic fields. The half plateau is stabilized in fields of 8–30 T (7–12 T) for , whereas two magnetic field induced ferroelectricities are located below and above this plateau. The remarkable high-field ferroelectricity for Ni or Co compound is about for the polycrystalline sample. The resulting magnetic field-temperature phase diagrams are very complex and several distinct phase transitions are observed. The forced electric polarization by sweeping magnetic fields evidences a clear magnetoelectric coupling in associated with the low-field ferroelectricity. Our magnetization data also reveal that produces an effective spin-1/2 behavior at the magnetic ground state. These experimental findings improve the knowledge to multiferroics and pave the way for exploring the quantum state of frustrated antiferromagnets.
1 More- Received 20 July 2018
- Revised 28 September 2018
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.98.184404
©2018 American Physical Society