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This chapter focuses on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on language classes in a Paris university in 2020. The first case studied is a Master of Arts (MA) class in translation studies. The forced and sudden switch to online learning was well accepted by students who cooperated with the academic staff to choose an online platform, in the absence of any available institutional resource. Although online teaching proved efficient in terms of learning output, it implied a lot of extra work to ensure interaction between teacher and students. Besides, important discrepancies appeared between students as regards equipment and connection. The second case is taken from language classes with Bachelor of Arts (BA) students. Communication was compromised by students' reluctance to activate their webcams, seen as a threat for their privacy. Material problems such as poor connection were thus compounded by the digital divide among them. This situation reveals disparities between students while opening opportunities for change. The priority should be given to an assessment of students' needs in a context of pandemics, at an international level. [For the complete volume, "The World Universities' Response to COVID-19: Remote Online Language Teaching," see ED614006.]

Anisotropic multiferroic properties of SrMnGe2O6 pyroxene single crystals were systematically investigated by means of magnetization, heat capacity, pyroelectric current measurement and elastic and inelastic neutron scattering experiments. Single crystal neutron diffraction allows us to unambiguously reveal the presence of two incommensurate magnetic orderings: a non-polar amplitude-modulated collinear sinusoidal magnetic structure emerges at TN1=4.36(2)K followed by a polar elliptical cycloidal spin structure below TN2=4.05(2)K. Pyroelectric current measurements on single crystal confirm the appearance of a spontaneous polarization within the (ac) plane below TN2 associated with the latter magnetic symmetry through extended Dzyaloshinsky-Moriya mechanism. The magnetic phase diagram was calculated considering the three isotropic exchange couplings relevant in this system. The magnetic excitations spectra of SrMnGe2O6 measured by inelastic neutron scattering were successfully modeled using a set of exchange interactions consistent with this phase diagram.

Pyroelectric current and magnetoelectric coupling measurements on polycrystalline samples of the quadruple perovskite (LaMn$_{3}$)Mn$_{4}$O$_{12}$ give evidence of ferroelectricity driven by the antiferromagnetic ordering of the $B$-site Mn$^{3+}$ ions at $T_{N,B}$=78 K with record values of remnant electric polarization up to $P$=0.56 $\mu$C cm$^{-2}$. X-ray diffraction measurements indicates an anomalous behavior of the monoclinic $\beta$ angle at $T_{N,B}$, which suggests that $P$ lies in the $ac$-plane, where the moments are collinear, so we conclude that exchange striction is the mechanism of spin-driven ferroelectricity. Polarization values $\sim$3 $\mu$C cm$^{-2}$ are expected in single crystals, which would open the avenue towards practical multiferroic applications., Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures

The interest in finding experimental realization of Quantum Liquid Spin phases leads us to elaborate polycrystalline samples of the 6H-B phase of Ba3NiSb2O9 . This structure shows Ni triangular planes and the first magnetic characterizations confirm the absence of any magnetic order as expected for QLS. The samples were synthesized by treatment under HP-HT of the 6H-A phase of Ba3NiSb2O9. The optimized synthesis conditions were 2.5 GPa and 620{\deg}C. By combining several technics as XRD, NPD and TEM we show that even the obtained compound is in fact a new form of Ba3NiSb2O9, that corresponds to a new stacking along c. This preserves the presence of Ni planes but results in a loss of the hexagonal symmetry. The TEM is helpful to conclude to a trigonal symmetry at a scale of 10nm., Comment: 5 figures submitted to Journal of Solid State Chemistry on 9/12/2015_ revised version on 30/01/2016

The interaction of coexisting structural instabilities in multiferroic materials gives rise to intriguing coupling phenomena and extraordinarily rich phase diagrams, both in bulk materials and strained thin films. Here we investigate the multiferroic BiMnO3 with its peculiar 6s2 electrons and four interacting mechanisms: electric polarity, octahedra tilts, magnetism, and cooperative Jahn-Teller distortion. We have probed structural transitions under high pressure by synchrotron x-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy up to 60 GPa. We show that BiMnO3 displays under pressure a rich sequence of five phases with a great variety of structures and properties, including a metallic phase above 53 GPa and, between 37 and 53 GPa, a strongly elongated monoclinic phase that allows ferroelectricity, which contradicts the traditional expectation that ferroelectricity vanishes under pressure. Between 7 and 37 GPa, the Pnma structure remains remarkably stable but shows a reduction of the Jahn-Teller distortion in a way that differs from the behavior observed in the archetypal orthorhombic Jahn-Teller distorted perovskite LaMnO3., Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures + supplemental material included (3 pages, 1 figure, 3 tables)

The hole-doped kagome lattice of Cu2+ ions in LaCuO2.66 was investigated by nuclear quadrupole resonance (NQR), electron spin resonance (ESR), electrical resistivity, bulk magnetization and specific heat measurements. For temperatures above ~180 K, the spin and charge properties show an activated behavior suggestive of a narrow-gap semiconductor. At lower temperatures, the results indicate an insulating ground state which may or may not be charge ordered. While the frustrated spins in remaining patches of the original kagome lattice might not be directly detected here, the observation of coexisting non-magnetic sites, free spins and frozen moments reveals an intrinsically inhomogeneous magnetism. Numerical simulations of a 1/3-diluted kagome lattice rationalize this magnetic state in terms of a heterogeneous distribution of cluster sizes and morphologies near the site-percolation threshold.

Employing the muon spin relaxation technique we evidence temperature independent magnetic fluctuations persisting down to the lowest temperatures in the samarium-based ($J=5/2$) kagome-lattice Langasite. A detailed bulk-magnetization characterization and comparison to the neodymium-based ($J=9/2$) compound allow us to assign the persistent spin dynamics to a quantum tunneling process. This is facilitated by pairwise anisotropic magnetic interactions, leading to a universal scaling of the muon relaxation. Our study reveals a remarkable analogy between weakly interacting half-integer-spin rare-earth magnets and molecular nanomagnets., Comment: 5 pages + 2 pages of supplementary information

By means of neutron powder diffraction, we investigated the effect of the polar Bi$^{3+}$ ion on the magnetic ordering of the Mn$^{3+}$ ions in BiMn$_3$Mn$_4$O$_{12}$, the counterpart with \textit{quadruple} perovskite structure of the \textit{simple} perovskite BiMnO$_3$. The data are consistent with a \textit{noncentrosymmetric} spacegroup $Im$ which contrasts the \textit{centrosymmetric} one $I2/m$ previously reported for the isovalent and isomorphic compound LaMn$_3$Mn$_4$O$_{12}$, which gives evidence of a Bi$^{3+}$-induced polarization of the lattice. At low temperature, the two Mn$^{3+}$ sublattices of the $A'$ and $B$ sites order antiferromagnetically (AFM) in an independent manner at 25 and 55 K, similarly to the case of LaMn$_3$Mn$_4$O$_{12}$. However, both magnetic structures of BiMn$_3$Mn$_4$O$_{12}$ radically differ from those of LaMn$_3$Mn$_4$O$_{12}$. In BiMn$_3$Mn$_4$O$_{12}$ the moments $\textbf{M}_{A'}$ of the $A'$ sites form an anti-body AFM structure, whilst the moments \textbf{M}$_{B}$ of the $B$ sites result from a large and \textit{uniform} modulation $\pm \textbf{M}_{B,b}$ along the b-axis of the moments \textbf{M}$_{B,ac}$ in the $ac$-plane. The modulation is strikingly correlated with the displacements of the Mn$^{3+}$ ions induced by the Bi$^{3+}$ ions. Our analysis unveils a strong magnetoelastic coupling between the internal strain created by the Bi$^{3+}$ ions and the moment of the Mn$^{3+}$ ions in the $B$ sites. This is ascribed to the high symmetry of the oxygen sites and to the absence of oxygen defects, two characteristics of quadruple perovskites not found in simple ones, which prevent the release of the Bi$^{3+}$-induced strain through distortions or disorder. This demonstrates the possibility of a large magnetoelectric coupling in proper ferroelectrics and suggests a novel concept of internal strain engineering for multiferroics design., Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, 5 tables

The spin wave excitations emerging from the chiral helically modulated 120$^{\circ}$ magnetic order in a langasite Ba$_3$NbFe$_3$Si$_2$O$_{14}$ enantiopure crystal were investigated by unpolarized and polarized inelastic neutron scattering. A dynamical fingerprint of the chiral ground state is obtained, singularized by (i) spectral weight asymmetries answerable to the structural chirality and (ii) a full chirality of the spin correlations observed over the whole energy spectrum. The intrinsic chiral nature of the spin waves elementary excitations is shown in absence of macroscopic time reversal symmetry breaking.

Using magnetic torque measurement on a NaNiO2 single crystal, we have established the magnetic phase diagram of this triangular compound. It presents 5 different phases depending on the temperature (4 K - 300 K) and magnetic field (0 - 22 T) revealing several spin reorientations coupled to different magnetic anisotropies.

We report muon spin relaxation ($\mu$SR) and $^{69,71}$Ga nuclear quadrupolar resonance (NQR) local-probe investigations of the kagom\'e compound Pr$_3$Ga$_5$SiO$_{14}$. Small quasi-static random internal fields develop below 40 K and persist down to our base temperature of 21 mK. They originate from hyperfine-enhanced $^{141}$Pr nuclear magnetism which requires a non-magnetic Pr$^{3+}$ crystal-field (CF) ground state. Besides, we observe a broad maximum of the relaxation rate at $\simeq 10$ K which we attribute to the population of the first excited magnetic CF level. Our results yield a Van-Vleck paramagnet picture, at variance with the formerly proposed spin-liquid ground state., Comment: minor changes