Multiferroicity in the frustrated spinel cuprate GeCu${}_2$O${}_4$

Abstract

Different from other magnetically frustrated spinel systems, GeCu${}_2$O${}_4$ is a strongly tetragonal distorted spinel cuprate in which edge-sharing CuO${}_2$ ribbons are running along alternating directions perpendicular to the $c$-axis. Here, GeCu${}_2$O${}_4$ samples of high quality were prepared via high pressure synthesis (at 4 GPa) and the corresponding magnetic and dielectric properties were investigated. For the first time, we observed a ferroelectric polarization emerging at T${}_N$ $\sim$ 33~K. Although the ferroelectric polarization is weak in GeCu${}_2$O${}_4$ ($P$ $\sim$ 0.2$\mu$C/m${}^2$), the existence of spin-induced multiferroicity provides a strong constraint on the possible ground state magnetic structures and/or the corresponding theoretical models of multiferroicity for GeCu${}_2$O${}_4$.

arXiv commenthttps://journals.aps.org/prmaterials/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevMaterials.2.041402

References in corpus (4)

• Multiferroicity, The coupling between magnetic and polarization
• Anisotropic pyrochlores and the global phase diagram of the checkerboard antiferromagnet
• Unusual UUDD magnetic chain structure of the spin-1/2 tetragonally distorted spinel GeCu2O4
• Spiral ground state in the quasi-two-dimensional spin-1/2 system Cu2GeO4

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Molecular Quantum Materials: Electronic Phases and Charge Dynamics in Two-Dimensional Organic Solids
• The origin of up-up-down-down magnetic order in Cu${}_2$GeO${}_4$
• Stabilization of high-pressure GeCu${}_2$O${}_4$ spinel cuprate with quasi-1D $S=1/2$ chains in the epitaxial thin-film form
• Epitaxial stabilization of thin films of the frustrated Ge-based spinels