Investigation of TbMnO by polarized neutron diffraction.

In order to make a new approach to the elucidation of the microscopic mechanisms of multiferroicity in the RMnO family, experiments with different methods of polarized neutrons scattering were performed on a TbMnO single crystal. We employed three different techniques of polarized neutron diffraction without the analysis after scattering, the XYZ-polarization analysis, and technique of spherical neutron polarimetry (SNP). Measurements with SNP were undertaken both with and without external electric field. A characteristic difference in the population of 'right' and 'left' helix domains in all magnetically ordered phases of TbMnO, was observed. This difference can be controlled by an external electric field in the field-cooled mode. The analysis of the results gives an evidence that antisymmetric Dzyaloshinsky-Moria exchange is effective in all the magnetic phases in TbMnO.