Emergent helical texture of electric dipoles

Abstract

Long-range ordering of magnetic dipoles in bulk materials gives rise to a broad range of magnetic structures, from simple collinear ferromagnets and antiferromagnets, to complex magnetic helicoidal textures stabilized by competing exchange interactions. In contrast, in the context of dipolar order in dielectric crystals, only parallel (ferroelectric) and antiparallel (antiferroelectric) collinear alignments of electric dipoles are typically considered. Here, we report an observation of incommensurate helical ordering of electric dipoles by light hole-doping of the quadruple perovskite BiMn7O12. In analogy with magnetism, the electric dipole helicoidal texture is also stabilized by competing instabilities. Specifically, orbital ordering and lone electron pair stereochemical activity compete, giving rise to phase transitions from a non-chiral cubic structure, to an incommensurate electric dipole and orbital helix, via an intermediate density wave.

References in corpus (5)

• Mantid - Data Analysis and Visualization Package for Neutron Scattering and $\mu SR$ Experiments
• Chiral Quantum Optics
• First-principles study of spontaneous polarization in multiferroic BiFeO${}_3$
• Emergent helical texture of electric dipoles
• Synthesis and characterization of multiferroic BiMn${}_7$O${}_{12}$

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