Skip to content

Ferroelectric polarization flop in a frustrated magnet MnWO4 induced by magnetic fields

K. Taniguchi, N. Abe, T. Takenobu, Y. Iwasa, T. Arima

cond-mat.str-elarXiv:cond-mat/0607481

Abstract

The relationship between magnetic order and ferroelectric properties has been investigated for MnWO4 with long-wavelength magnetic structure. Spontaneous electric polarization is observed in an elliptical spiral spin phase. The magnetic-field dependence of electric polarization indicates that the noncollinear spin configuration plays a key role for the appearance of ferroelectric phase. An electric polarization flop from the b direction to the a direction has been observed when a magnetic field above 10T is applied along the b axis. This result demonstrates that an electric polarization flop can be induced by a magnetic field in a simple system without rare-earth f-moments.

Create a lesson