Raman spectroscopic evidence for multiferroicity in rare earth nickelate single crystals

Abstract

The rare earth nickelates RNiO3 are metallic at high temperatures and insulating and magnetically ordered at low temperatures. The low temperature phase has been predicted to be type II multiferroic, i.e. ferroelectric and magnetic order are coupled and occur simultaneously. Confirmation of those ideas has been inhibited by the absence of experimental data on single crystals. Here we report on Raman spectroscopic data of RNiO3 single crystals (R = Y, Er, Ho, Dy, Sm, Nd) for temperatures between 10 K and 1000 K. Entering the magnetically ordered phase we observe the appearance of a large number of additional vibrational modes, implying a breaking of inversion symmetry expected for multiferroic order.

10 pages, 8 figures

References in corpus (7)

• Quantum ESPRESSO: a modular and open-source software project for quantum simulations of materials
• Bond disproportionation and dynamical charge fluctuations in the perovskite rare earth nickelates
• Role of magnetic and orbital ordering at the metal-insulator transition in NdNiO3
• Low-energy description of the metal-insulator transition in the rare-earth nickelates
• Raman scattering investigation across the magnetic and MI transition in rare earth nickelate RNiO3 (R = Sm, Nd) thin films
• Interplay between breathing mode distortion and magnetic order in rare-earth nickelates $R$NiO${}_3$ within DFT+$U$
• Tuning the metal-insulator transition in NdNiO3 heterostructures via Fermi surface instability and spin-fluctuations

Cited by in corpus (6)

• A Nickelate Renaissance
• Hybridization driving distortions and multiferroicity in rare-earth nickelates
• Simple microscopic model for magneto-electric coupling in type-II antiferromagnetic multiferroics
• Signatures of polarized chiral spin disproportionation in rare earth nickelates
• Magnetostructural Coupling at the Néel point in YNiO3 Single Crystals
• Internal and External Field Effects upon Crystal Field Excitations in REFeO${}_3$ (RE = Nd${}^{3+}$, Er${}^{3+}$, Yb${}^{3+}$, Pr${}^{3+}$, and Ho${}^{3+}$)