Multiferroic properties of melanothallite Cu2OCl2

Guo H, Zhao L, Schmidt W, Fernandez-Diaz MT, Becker C, Melendez-Sans A, Peng W, Zbiri M, Hansmann P, Komarek AC (2019)

Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2019

Journal

Physical Review Materials American Physical Society

Book Volume: 3

Article Number: 124405

Journal Issue: 12

DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevMaterials.3.124405

Abstract

Here we report on P-E hysteresis loop measurements that unravel the ferroelectric nature of melanothallite Cu2OCl2, a new multiferroic material with high critical temperature. Its spin structure was investigated by polarized and unpolarized neutron scattering experiments which reveal a cycloidal magnetic structure with vector chirality (magnetic polarity) that can be inverted by opposite poling of the sample with an inverted electric field. This shows that Cu2OCl2 is a spin-induced ferroelectric material. Finally, we show that the ferroelectric properties of Cu2OCl2 are driven by the inverse Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction mechanism which is also able to predict the observed direction of the ferroelectric polarization properly. The origin of the noncollinear spin structure in melanothallite are competing AFM-FM exchange couplings which we estimate from a combined ab initio + cluster configuration interaction calculation.

Authors with CRIS profile

Philipp Hansmann

Involved external institutions

Max-Planck-Institut für Chemische Physik fester Stoffe (MPI CPfS) / Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids DE Germany (DE) Institute Laue-Langevin (ILL) FR France (FR) Forschungszentrum Jülich / Research Centre Jülich (FZJ) DE Germany (DE)

How to cite

APA:

Guo, H., Zhao, L., Schmidt, W., Fernandez-Diaz, M.T., Becker, C., Melendez-Sans, A.,... Komarek, A.C. (2019). Multiferroic properties of melanothallite Cu2OCl2. Physical Review Materials, 3(12). https://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevMaterials.3.124405

MLA:

Guo, H., et al. "Multiferroic properties of melanothallite Cu2OCl2." Physical Review Materials 3.12 (2019).

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