Domain dynamics in LiCuVO: Evidence for polarized nanoregions
arXiv:1902.01135 · doi:10.1038/s41598-019-40839-5
Abstract
LiCuVO is a model system of a 1D spin-1/2 chain that enters a planar spin-spiral ground state below its Néel temperature of 2.4 K due to competing nearest and next nearest neighbor interactions. The spin-spiral state is multiferroic with an electric polarization along the a axis which has been proposed to be caused purely by the spin supercurrent mechanism. With external magnetic fields in c direction T can be suppressed down to 0 K at 7.4 T. Here we report dynamical measurements of the polarization from P(E)-hysteresis loops, magnetic field dependent pyro-current and non-linear dielectric spectroscopy as well as thermal expansion and magnetostriction measurements at very low temperatures. The multiferroic transition is accompanied by strong anomalies in the thermal expansion and magnetostriction coefficients and we find slow switching times of electric domain reversal. Both observations suggest a sizable magnetoelastic coupling in LiCuVO. By analyzing the non-linear polarization dynamics we derive domain sizes in the nm range that are probably caused by Li defects.
References in corpus (12)
- Vogel-Fulcher freezing in relaxor ferroelectrics
- New high magnetic field phase of the frustrated chain compound LiCuVO
- Switching the Ferroelectric Polarization by External Magnetic Fields in the Spin = 1/2 Chain Cuprate LiCuVO4
- Evidence of a bond-nematic phase in LiCuVO4
- Search for a spin-nematic phase in the quasi-one-dimensional frustrated magnet LiCuVO
- Spin-modulated quasi-1D antiferromagnet LiCuVO_4
- Observation of a multiferroic critical end point
- Pressure-Temperature Phase Diagram of Multiferroic
- Thermal expansion and pressure effect in MnWO4
- Ferroelectricity from spin supercurrents in LiCuVO4
- Origin of Multiferroicity in MnWO4
- Directional magnetoelectric effects in MnWO4: magnetic sources of the electric polarization