Relaxor ferroelectricity and the freezing of short-range polar order in magnetite

Abstract

A thorough investigation of single crystalline magnetite using broadband dielectric spectroscopy and other methods provides evidence for relaxor-like polar order in Fe3O4. We find long-range ferroelectric order to be im-peded by the continuous freezing of polar degrees of freedom and the formation of a tunneling-dominated glasslike state at low temperatures. This also explains the lack of clear evidence for a non-centrosymmetric crystal structure below the Verwey transition. Within the framework of recent models assuming an intimate relation of charge and polar order, the charge order, too, can be speculated to be of short-range type only and to be dominated by tunneling at low temperatures.

16 pages, 4 figures, final version with revisions according to referee demands

References in corpus (9)

• Multiferroics: different ways to combine magnetism and ferroelectricity
• Materials with Colossal Dielectric Constant: Do They Exist?
• Colossal dielectric constants in transition-metal oxides
• Multiferroicity due to charge ordering
• Long Range Charge Ordering in Magnetite Below the Verwey Transition
• Ferroelectricity in multiferroic magnetite Fe3O4 driven by noncentrosymmetric Fe2+/Fe3+ charge-ordering: First-principles study
• New phase transition in $P{r}_{1-x}C{a}_{x}Mn{O}_3$ system: evidence for electrical polarization in charge ordered manganites
• High-energy photoemission on Fe3O4: Small polaron physics and the Verwey transition
• Terahertz Conductivity at the Verwey Transition in Magnetite

Cited by in corpus (14)

• Multiferroicity in an organic charge-transfer salt: Electric-dipole-driven magnetism
• Dielectric properties of charge ordered LuFe2O4 revisited: The apparent influence of contacts
• Absence of polar order in LuFe2O4
• Wüstite: Electric, thermodynamic and optical properties of FeO
• Ferroelectricity from iron valence ordering in rare earth ferrites?
• Magnetoelectric effects in the skyrmion host material Cu2OSeO3
• Ferroelectric order associated with an ordered occupancy at the octahedral site of the inverse spinel structure of multiferroic NiFe2O4
• Polar and magnetic order in GaV4Se8
• Pyroelectric detection of spontaneous polarization in magnetite thin films
• Excitations and relaxation dynamics in multiferroic GeV4S8 studied by THz and dielectric spectroscopy
• Charge Order Breaks Magnetic Symmetry in Molecular Quantum Spin Chains
• On the complexity of spinels: Magnetic, electronic, and polar ground states
• Statistical distribution of the electric field driven switching of the Verwey state in Fe3O4
• Magnetodielectric Properties in Two Dimensional Magnetic Insulators