Electric Control of Spin Helicity in a Magnetic Ferroelectric

Abstract

Magnetic ferroelectrics or multiferroics, which are currently extensively explored, may provide a good arena to realize a novel magnetoelectric function. Here we demonstrate the genuine electric control of the spiral magnetic structure in one of such magnetic ferroelectrics, TbMnO3. A spin-polarized neutron scattering experiment clearly shows that the spin helicity, clockwise or counter-clockwise, is controlled by the direction of spontaneous polarization and hence by the polarity of the small cooling electric field.

arXiv comment4 pages, 3 figures

Cited by in corpus (6)

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• First-principles study of improper ferroelectricity in TbMnO3
• First Principles Studies of Multiferroic Materials
• Spherical neutron polarimetry study of hysteresis in multiferroic MnWO4
• Circularly Polarised X-ray Scattering Investigation of Spin-Lattice Coupling in TbMnO${}_3$ in Crossed Electric and Magnetic Fields
• Conductance and shot noise in the helimagnet tunnel junction