Relationship between ferroelectricity and Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction in multiferroics and the effect of bond-bending

Abstract

We studied the microscopic mechanism of multiferroics, in particular with the "spin current" model (Hosho Katsura, Naoto Nagaosa and Aleander V. Balatsky, Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 057205 (2005)). Starting from a system with helical spin configuration, we solved for the forms of the electron wave functions and analyzed their characteristics. The relation between ferroelectricity and Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (I. Dzyaloshinskii, J. Phys. Chem. Solids 4, 241 (1958) and T. Moriya, Phys. Rev. 120, 91 (1960)) is clearly established. There is also a simple relation between the electric polarization and the wave vector of magnetic orders. Finally, we show that the bond-bending exists in transition metal oxides can enhance ferroelectricity.

14 pages, 3 figures. acceptby Physical Review B

References in corpus (3)

• Spin current and magneto-electric effect in non-collinear magnets
• Role of the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction in multiferroic perovskites
• Direct transition from a disordered to a multiferroic phase on a triangular lattice