Kinoshita M, Seki S, Sato T J, Nambu Y, Hong T, Matsuda M, Cao H B, Ishiwata S, Tokura Y
Department of Applied Physics and Quantum Phase Electronics Center (QPEC), University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-8656, Japan.
RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science (CEMS), Wako 351-0198, Japan.
Phys Rev Lett. 2016 Jul 22;117(4):047201. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.117.047201.
The correlation between magnetic and dielectric properties has been investigated for the single crystal of the chiral triangular-lattice helimagnet MnSb_{2}O_{6}. We found that the spin-spiral plane in the ground state has a considerable tilting from the (110) plane and that the sign of the spin-spiral tilting angle is coupled to the clockwise or counterclockwise manner of spin rotation and accordingly to the sign of magnetically induced electric polarization. This leads to unique magnetoelectric responses such as the magnetic-field-induced selection of a single ferroelectric domain as well as the reversal of electric polarization just by a slight tilting of the magnetic field direction, where the chiral nature of the crystal structure plays a crucial role through the coupling of the chirality between the crystal and magnetic structures. Our results demonstrate that crystallographic chirality can be an abundant source of novel magnetoelectric functions with coupled internal degrees of freedom.
对手性三角晶格螺旋磁体MnSb₂O₆的单晶,研究了其磁性与介电性质之间的相关性。我们发现,基态下的自旋螺旋平面相对于(110)平面有相当大的倾斜,且自旋螺旋倾斜角的符号与自旋旋转的顺时针或逆时针方式相关联,进而与磁致电极化的符号相关联。这导致了独特的磁电响应,例如磁场诱导的单一铁电畴的选择以及仅通过轻微倾斜磁场方向就能使电极化反转,其中晶体结构的手性通过晶体与磁结构之间的手性耦合发挥了关键作用。我们的结果表明,晶体学手性可以成为具有耦合内部自由度的新型磁电功能的丰富来源。