Bond distortion effects and electric orders in spiral multiferroic magnets

Abstract

We study in this paper bond distortion effect on electric polarization in spiral multiferroic magnets based on cluster and chain models. The bond distortion break inversion symmetry and modify the $d$-$p$ hybridization. Consequently, it will affect electric polarization which can be divided into spin-current part and lattice-mediated part. The spin-current polarization can be written in terms of $\vec{e}_{i,j}\times(\vec{e}_{i}\times\vec{e}_{j}) $ and the lattice-mediated polarization exists only when the M-O-M bond is distorted. The electric polarization for three-atom M-O-M and four-atom M-O$_{2}$-M clusters is calculated. We also study possible electric ordering in three kinds of chains made of different clusters. We apply our theory to multiferroics cuprates and find that the results are in agreement with experimental observations.