Experimental observation of ferrielectricity in multiferroic DyMn2O5: revisiting the electric polarization

Abstract

The electric polarization and its magnetic origins in multiferroic RMn2O5, where R is rare-earth ion, are still issues under debate. In this work, the temperature-dependent electric polarization of DyMn2O5, the most attractive member of this RMn2O5 family, is investigated using the pyroelectric current method upon varying endpoint temperature of the electric cooling, plus the positive-up-negative-down (PUND) technique. It is revealed that DyMn2O5 at low temperature does exhibit the unusual ferrielectricity rather than ferroelectricity, characterized by two interactive and anti-parallel ferroelectric sublattices which show different temperature-dependences. The two ferroelectric sublattices are believed to be generated from the symmetric exchange-striction mechanisms associated with the Mn-Mn spin interactions and Dy-Mn spin interactions, respectively. The path-dependent electric polarization reflects the first-order magnetic transitions in the low temperature regime. The magnetoelectric effect is mainly attributed to the Dy spin order which is sensitive to magnetic field. The present experiments may be helpful for clarifying the puzzling issues on the multiferroicity in DyMn2O5 and probably other RMn2O5 multiferroics.

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References in corpus (8)

• A Neutron diffraction study of multiferroics RMn2O5
• Structural Anomalies at the Magnetic and Ferroelectric Transitions in $RM{n}_2{O}_5$ (R=Tb, Dy, Ho)
• Magnetic-field induced effects on the electric polarization in RMnO3 (R = Dy, Gd)
• Complex Spin Structures and Origin of the Magneto-Electric Coupling in YMn2O5
• Magnetoelastic Effects and Magnetic Phase Diagram of Multiferroic $DyM{n}_2{O}_5$
• An x-ray resonant diffraction study of multiferroic DyMn2O5
• A model of magnetic order in hexagonal HoMnO3
• The Magnetic Structure of DyMn2O5 Determined by Resonant X-ray Scattering

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• Ferrielectricity in an Organic Ferroelectric
• New iron-based multiferroics with improper ferroelectricity
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• Magnetic and electric behaviors of DyMn${}_2$O${}_5$: effect of hole doping
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