Ortiz Hernández Nazaret, Skoropata Elizabeth, Ueda Hiroki, Burian Max, Alonso José Antonio, Staub Urs
Swiss Light Source, Paul Scherrer Institute, Forschungssrtasse 111, 5232 Villigen-PSI, Villigen, Switzerland.
Instituto de Ciencia de Materiales de Madrid, CSIC, Cantoblanco, E-28049 Madrid, Spain.
Commun Mater. 2024;5(1):154. doi: 10.1038/s43246-024-00604-2. Epub 2024 Aug 15.
The interaction of magnetic order and spontaneous polarization is a fundamental coupling with the prospect for the control of electronic properties and magnetism. The connection among magnetic order, charge localization and associated metal-insulator transition (MIT) are cornerstones for materials control. Materials that combine both effects are therefore of great interest for testing models that claim the occurrence of spontaneous polarization from magnetic and charge order. One class of materials proposed to combine these functionalities is the family of RNiO (R: Lanthanide or Yttrium), whose members show a clear MIT and an antiferromagnetic ground state and for which an electric polarization has been predicted. Here, using resonant magnetic x-ray scattering with circular polarization and an applied electric field we show that YNiO possess a magnetic structure containing domains of spin-rotations that are consistent with an electric polarization. We show a reversal of the magnetic structure with the applied electric field confirming that charge ordered RNiO are magnetoelectric type II multiferroics with a MIT.
磁有序与自发极化的相互作用是一种基本耦合，有望用于控制电子性质和磁性。磁有序、电荷局域化以及相关的金属-绝缘体转变（MIT）之间的联系是材料控制的基石。因此，结合了这两种效应的材料对于检验那些声称自发极化源于磁有序和电荷有序的模型具有重要意义。一类被提议结合这些功能的材料是RNiO族（R：镧系元素或钇），其成员表现出明显的MIT和反铁磁基态，并且已预测其存在电极化。在此，我们利用圆偏振共振磁X射线散射和外加电场表明，YNiO具有一种磁结构，其中包含与电极化一致的自旋旋转畴。我们展示了外加电场导致磁结构的反转，证实了电荷有序的RNiO是具有MIT的II型磁电多铁性材料。
