1. Ferroelectricity Induced by Acentric Spin-Density Waves in YMn2O5
- Author
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Soonyong Park, Graeme R. Blake, S-W. Cheong, Paolo G. Radaelli, Laurent Chapon, and Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials
- Subjects
Physics ,commensurate-incommensurate transformations ,Condensed Matter - Materials Science ,Condensed matter physics ,Magnetic structure ,magnetic structure ,Neutron diffraction ,Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) ,FOS: Physical sciences ,General Physics and Astronomy ,Polarization (waves) ,Ferroelectricity ,ferroelectricity ,Spontaneous polarization ,magnetoelectric effects ,neutron diffraction ,Lattice (order) ,Acentric factor ,yttrium compounds ,Condensed Matter::Strongly Correlated Electrons ,Spin density ,spin density waves - Abstract
The commensurate and incommensurate magnetic structures of the magnetoelectric system YMn$_{2}$O$_{5}$, as determined from neutron diffraction, were found to be spin-density waves lacking a global center of symmetry. We propose a model, based on a simple magneto-elastic coupling to the lattice, which enables us to predict the polarization based entirely on the observed magnetic structure. Our data accurately reproduce the temperature-dependence of the spontaneous polarization, in particular its sign reversal at the commensurate-incommensurate transition., Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures, 1 table
- Published
- 2006