Low-temperature ferroelectric phase and magnetoelectric coupling in the underdoped La_2CuO_(4+x)

Abstract

We report the discovery of a ferroelectric ground state below 4.5 K in highly underdoped La_2CuO_(4+x) accompanied by slow charge dynamics which develop below T~40 K. An anisotropic magnetoelectric response has also been observed, indicating considerable spin-charge coupling in this lightly doped "parent" high temperature copper-oxide superconductor. The ferroelectric state is proposed to develop from polar nanoregions, in which spatial inversion symmetry is locally broken due to non-stoichiometric carrier doping.

7 Pages, 6 Figures, supplementary material

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• Role of the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction in multiferroic perovskites
• Crystal structure and high-field magnetism of La2CuO4
• Field dependence of the magnetic spectrum in anisotropic and Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya antiferromagnets: I. Theory
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Cited by in corpus (7)

• Electronic polymers and soft-matter-like broken symmetries in underdoped cuprates
• Pseudogap phase in cuprates: oxygen orbital moments instead of circulating currents
• Hidden Ferronematic Order in Underdoped Cuprates
• Phase transitions to dipolar clusters and charge density waves in high Tc superconductors
• Nanoscale structural correlations in a model cuprate superconductor
• Ferroelectricity in underdoped La-based cuprates
• Bi-quadratic magnetoelectric coupling in underdoped La_2CuO_{4+x}