Ferroelectricity in spiral magnets

Abstract

It was recently observed that materials showing most striking multiferroic phenomena are frustrated spin-density-wave magnets. We present a simple phenomenological theory, which describes the orientation of the induced electric polarization for various incommensurate magnetic states, its dependence on temperature and magnetic field, and anomalies of dielectric susceptibility at magnetic transitions. We show that electric polarization can be induced at domain walls and that magnetic vortices carry electric charge.