Ferroelectricity Induced by Incommensurate Magnetism (Invited)

Ferroelectricity has been found to occur in several insulating systems, such as TbMnO3 and Ni3V2O8 which have more than one phase with incommensurately modulated long-range magnetic order. Here we give a phenomenological model which relates the symmetries of the magnetic structure as obtained from neutron diffraction to the development and orientation of a spontaneous ferroelectric moment induced by the magnetic ordering. This model leads directly to the formulation of a microscopic spin-phonon interaction which explains the observed phenomena. The results are given in terms of gradients of the exchange tensor with respect to generalized displacements for the specific example of NVO. It is assumed that these gradients will now be the target of first-principles calculations using the LDA+U or related schemes Disciplines Physics | Quantum Physics This journal article is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn.edu/physics_papers/430 Ferroelectricity induced by incommensurate magnetism „invited... A. Brooks Harris Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104 Presented on 1 November 2005; published online 27 April 2006 Ferroelectricity has been found to occur in several insulating systems, such as TbMnO3 and Ni3V2O8 which have more than one phase with incommensurately modulated long-range magnetic order. Here we give a phenomenological model which relates the symmetries of the magnetic structure as obtained from neutron diffraction to the development and orientation of a spontaneous ferroelectric moment induced by the magnetic ordering. This model leads directly to the formulation of a microscopic spin-phonon interaction which explains the observed phenomena. The results are given in terms of gradients of the exchange tensor with respect to generalized displacements for the specific example of NVO. It is assumed that these gradients will now be the target of first-principles calculations using the LDA+U or related schemes. © 2006 American Institute of Physics. DOI: 10.1063/1.2177392