Magnetic ground state and magnon-phonon interaction in multiferroic h-YMnO$_3$
S. L. Holm, A. Kreisel, T. K. Schäffer, A. Bakke, M. Bertelsen, U. B. Hansen, M. Retuerto, J. Larsen, D. Prabhakaran, P. P. Deen, Z. Yamani, J. O. Birk, U. Stuh… 展开作者
S. L. Holm, A. Kreisel, T. K. Schäffer, A. Bakke, M. Bertelsen, U. B. Hansen, M. Retuerto, J. Larsen, D. Prabhakaran, P. P. Deen, Z. Yamani, J. O. Birk, U. Stuhr, Ch. Niedermayer, A. L. Fennell, B. M. Andersen, K. Lefmann
Inelastic neutron scattering has been used to study the magneto-elastic excitations in the multiferroic manganite hexagonal YMnO$_3$. An avoided crossing is found between magnon and phonon modes close to the Brillouin zone boundary in the $(a,b)$-plane. Neutron polarization analysis reveals that this mode has mixed magnon-phonon character. An external magnetic field along the $c$-axis is observed to cause a linear field-induced splitting of one of the spin wave branches. A theoretical description is performed, using a Heisenberg model of localized spins, acoustic phonon modes and a magneto-elastic coupling via the single-ion magnetostriction. The model quantitatively reproduces the dispersion and intensities of all modes in the full Brillouin zone, describes the observed magnon-phonon hybridized modes, and quantifies the magneto-elastic coupling. The combined information, including the field-induced magnon splitting, allows us to exclude several of the earlier proposed models and point to the correct magnetic ground state symmetry, and provides an effective dynamic model relevant for the multiferroic hexagonal manganites.
We used Raman and terahertz spectroscopies to investigate lattice and magnetic excitations and their cross-coupling in the hexagonal YMnO3 multiferroic. Two phonon modes are strongly affected by the magnetic order. Magnon excitations have been identified thanks to comparison with neutron measurements and spin wave calculations but no electromagnon has been observed. In addition, we evidenced two additional Raman active peaks. We have compared this observation with the anti-crossing between magnon and acoustic phonon branches measured by neutron. These optical measurements underly the unusual s…
We investigated the magnetic structure of an orthorhombic YMnO3 thin film by resonant soft x-ray and hard x-ray diffraction. We observed a temperature-dependent incommensurate magnetic reflection below 45 K and a commensurate lattice-distortion reflection below 35 K. These results demonstrate that the ground state is composed of coexisting E-type and cycloidal states. Their different ordering temperatures clarify the origin of the large polarization to be caused by the E-type antiferromagnetic states in the orthorhombic YMnO3 thin film.
We have investigated magnetoelastic effects in multiferroic YMnO$_3$ below the antiferromagnetic phase transition, $T_N \approx 70$ K, using neutron powder diffraction. The $a$ lattice parameter of the hexagonal unit cell of YMnO$_3$ decreases normally above $T_N$, but decreases anomalously below T$_N$, whereas the $c$ lattice parameter increases with decreasing temperature and then increases anomalously below T$_N$. The unit cell volume also undergoes an anomalous contraction below $T_N$. By fitting the background thermal expansion for a non-magnetic lattice with the Einstein-Grüneisen equati…
We report on the exchange bias between antiferromagnetic and ferroelectric hexagonal YMnO3 epitaxial thin films sandwiched between a metallic electrode (Pt) and a soft ferromagnetic layer (Py). Anisotropic magnetoresistance measurements are performed to monitor the presence of an exchange bias field. When the heteroestructure is biased by an electric field, it turns out that the exchange bias field is suppressed. We discuss the dependence of the observed effect on the amplitude and polarity of the electric field. Particular attention is devoted to the role of current leakage across the ferroel…
Hexagonal YMnO_3 with space group P63cm is one of the rare examples of multiferroic materials that exhibit co-dependence of a robust ferroelectric phase along with antiferromagnetic ordering. This is primarily ascribed to tilting of the MnO_5 polyhedra driven by magnetoelectric coupling. We report on the effect of magnetic field at the atomic level in YMnO_3 by utilizing magnetic field and temperature dependent neutron diffraction measurements. We show that near the Néel temperature the lattice parameters, effective magnetic moment per site, Mn-O bond lengths and O-Mn-O bond angles show large …
The magnetic exchange bias between epitaxial thin films of the multiferroic (antiferromagnetic and ferroelectric) hexagonal YMnO3 oxide and a soft ferromagnetic (FM) layer is used to couple the magnetic response of the ferromagnetic layer to the magnetic state of the antiferromagnetic one. We will show that biasing the ferroelectric YMnO3 layer by an appropriate electric field allows modifying and controlling the magnetic exchange bias and subsequently the magnetotransport properties of the FM layer. This finding may contribute to pave the way towards a new generation of electric-field control…
Hexagonal YMnO$_{3}$ is a prototype antiferromagnet which exhibits multiferroic behavior with the ferroelectric and magnetic transitions occurring at different temperatures. We observe an out-of-plane canting of the Mn$^{3+}$ magnetic moments using resonant X-ray diffraction (RXD) in a single crystal of this material. These canted moments result in the symmetry-forbidden (0,0,1) magnetic Bragg reflection, which is observed at the Mn $L_{2,3}$ absorption edges. We also observe an unexpected difference in the RXD spectral shapes at different temperatures. Using ab initio calculations, we explore…
We report on the structural and electronic properties of the interface between the multiferoic oxide YMnO$_3$ and wide band-gap semiconductor GaN studied with the Hubbard-corrected local spin density approximation (LSDA+U) to density-functional theory (DFT). We find that the band offsets at the interface between antiferromagnetically ordered YMnO$_3$ and GaN are different for spin-up and spin-down states. This behavior is due to the spin splitting of the valence band induced by the interface. The energy barrier depends on the relative orientation of the electric polarization with respect to th…
Electronic structures of multiferroic RMnO$_3$ (R=Y, Er) have been investigated by employing photoemission spectroscopy (PES) and x-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS). We have found that Mn ions in RMnO$_3$ are in the trivalent high-spin state with the total spin of S=2. The occupied Mn ($d_{xz} - d_{yz}$) states lie deep below $\rm E_F$, while the occupied Mn ($d_{xy} - d_{x^2 -y^2}$) states overlap very much with the O $2p$ states. It is observed that the PES spectral intensity of Mn 3d states is negligible above the occupied O $2p$ bands, suggesting that YMnO$_3$ is likely to be a charge-tra…
The breakdown of magnons, the quasiparticles of magnetic systems, has rarely been seen. By using an inelastic neutron scattering technique we report the observation of spontaneous magnon decay in multiferroic LuMnO$_3$, a simple two-dimensional Heisenberg triangular lattice antiferromagnet, with large spin, S = 2. The origin of this rare phenomenon lies in the non-vanishing cubic interaction between magnons in the spin Hamiltonian arising from the noncollinear 120$^o$ spin structure. We observed all three key features of the nonlinear effects as theoretically predicted: a roton-like minimum, a…
We demonstrate a new approach for directly measuring the ultrafast energy transfer between elec- trons and magnons, enabling us to track spin dynamics in an antiferromagnet (AFM). In multiferroic HoMnO3, optical photoexcitation creates hot electrons, after which changes in the spin order are probed with a THz pulse tuned to a magnon resonance. This reveals a photoinduced transparency, which builds up over several picoseconds as the spins heat up due to energy transfer from hot elec- trons via phonons. This spin-lattice thermalization time is ?10 times faster than that of typical ferromagnetic …
The lattice dynamics of the $\rm YMnO_3$ magneto-electric compound has been investigated using density functional calculations, both in the ferroelectric and the paraelectric phases. The coherence between the computed and experimental data is very good in the low temperature phase. Using group theory, modes continuity and our calculations we were able to show that the phonons modes observed by Raman scattering at 1200K are only compatible with the ferroelectric $P6_{3} cm$ space group, thus supporting the idea of a ferroelectric to paraelectric phase transition at higher temperature. Finally w…
The spin wave spectra of multiferroic BiFeO3 films is calculated using a phenomenological Landau theory that includes magnetostatic effects. The lowest frequency magnon dispersion is shown to be quite sensitive to the angle between spin wave propagation vector and the Neel moment. Since electrical switching of the Neel moment has recently been demonstrated in this material, the sensitivity of the magnon dispersion permits direct electrical switching of spin wave propagation. This effect can be used to construct spin wave logical gates without current pulses, potentially allowing reduced power …
The magnetic field dependent phase diagram of the ferroelectric material ${\rm Ho}_{1-x}Y_{x}MnO_{3}$ has been investigated for x = 0, 0.6, and 0.8 for fields directed along both the ab in-plane and c-axis basal plane directions. Dielectric measurements are used to map out the re-entrant temperature-magnetic field phase transitions which involve in-plane Mn spin rotations in the antiferromagnetic state below the N$\acute{e}$el temperature. We show through the alloy study that the Ho sublattice plays a major role in all transitions, and that the phase diagram for $Ho_{1-x}Y_{x}MnO_{3}$ is depen…
The magnetic excitations in multiferroic TbMnO3 have been studied by inelastic neutron scattering in the spiral and sinusoidally ordered phases. At the incommensurate magnetic zone center of the spiral phase, we find three low-lying magnons whose character has been fully determined using neutron-polarization analysis. The excitation at the lowest energy is the sliding mode of the spiral, and two modes at 1.1 and 2.5meV correspond to rotations of the spiral rotation plane. These latter modes are expected to couple to the electric polarization. The 2.5meV-mode is in perfect agreement with recent…
We have investigated the effects of substituting In for Mn on the antiferromagnetic phase transition in YMnO3 using magnetic, dielectric, and specific heat measurements. We prepared a set of isostructural phase pure hexagonal YMn$_{1-x}$In$_{x}$O$_{3}$ samples having x=0 to x=0.9, which exhibit a systematic decrease of the antiferromagnetic ordering temperature with increasing In content. The multiferroic phase, which develops below TN, appears to be completely suppressed for x$\geq$0.5 in the temperature range investigated, which can be attributed solely to the dilution of magnetic interactio…
The low energy dynamical properties of the multiferroic hexagonal perovskite ErMnO3 have been studied by inelastic neutron scattering as well as terahertz and far infrared spectroscopies on synchrotron source. From these complementary techniques, we have determined the magnon and crystal field spectra and identified a zone center magnon only excitable by the electric field of an electromagnetic wave. Using comparison with the isostructural YMnO3 compound and crystal field calculations, we propose that this dynamical magnetoelectric process is due to the hybridization of a magnon with an electr…
We report the spectra of magnetically induced electric dipole absorption in Eu$_{0.75}$Y$_{0.25}$MnO$_3$ from temperature dependent far infrared spectroscopy (10-250 cm$^{-1}$). These spectra, which occur only in the $e||a$ polarization, consist of two relatively narrow electromagnon features that onset at $T_{FE}=30$ K and a broad absorption band that persists to temperatures well above $T_N=47$ K. The observed excitations account for the step up of the static dielectric constant in the ferroelectric phase. The electromagnon at 80 cm$^{-1}$ is observed to be strongly coupled to the nearby low…
We have investigated electrically-active magnetic excitations (electromagnons) in perovskite manganites with the $E$-type (up-up-down-down) spin structure by terahertz spectroscopy. Eu$_{1-x}$Y$_x$MnO$_3$ (0.1$\le x\le$1) and Y$_{1-y}$Lu$_y$MnO$_3$ (0$\le y\le$1) without magnetic $f$-moments, which host collinear sinusoidal, $A$-type, cycloidal, and $E$-type spin orders, are used to examine the systematics of possible electromagnons. Three-peak structures (23, 35, 45 cm$^{-1}$) of magnetic origin show up in the $E$-type phase with little composition ($y$) dependence of frequencies, making a co…
The magnon and optical phonon spectrum of an incommensurate multiferroic such as BiFeO3 is considered in the framework of a phenomenological Landau theory. The resulting spin wave spectrum is quite distinct from commensurate substances due to soft mode anisotropy and magnon zone folding. The former allows electrical control of spin wave propagation via reorientation of the spontaneous ferroelectric moment. The latter gives rise to multiple magneto-dielectric resonances due to the coupling of optical phonons at zero wavevector to magnons at integer multiples of the cycloid wavevector. These res…
We studied magnetic excitations in a low-temperature ferroelectric phase of the multiferroic YMn2O5 using inelastic neutron scattering (INS). We identify low-energy magnon modes and establish a correspondence between the magnon peaks observed by INS and electromagnon peaks observed in optical absorption [1]. Furthermore, we explain the microscopic mechanism, which results in the lowest-energy electromagnon peak, by comparing the inelastic neutron spectral weight with the polarization in the commensurate ferroelectric phase.
We present data on the magnetic and magneto-elastic coupling in the hexagonal multiferroic manganite LuMnO3 from inelastic neutron scattering, magnetization and thermal expansion measurements. We measured the magnon dispersion along the main symmetry directions and used this data to determine the principal exchange parameters from a spin-wave model. An analysis of the magnetic anisotropy in terms of the crystal field acting on the Mn is presented. We compare the results for LuMnO3 with data on other hexagonal RMnO3 compounds.
We propose a new mechanism to induce a novel one-magnon excitation by the electric component of light in cycloidal spin states, i.e. so called electromagnon process. We calculated optical spectra in the cycloidal spin structures as observed in multiferroic perovskite manganites RMnO3 where novel magnetic excitations induced by oscillating electric fields are observed. When symmetric spin-dependent electric polarizations are introduced, we have light absorptions at terahertz frequencies with one- and two-magnon excitations driven by the electric component of light. Our results show that some pa…
We present a theory of magnetoelectric magnon-photon coupling in cavities hosting noncentrosymmetric magnets. Analogously to nonreciprocal phenomena in multiferroics, the magnetoelectric coupling is time-reversal and inversion asymmetric. This asymmetry establishes a means for exceptional tunability of magnon-photon coupling, which can be switched on and off by reversing the magnetization direction. Taking the multiferroic skyrmion-host Cu$_2$OSeO$_3$ with ultralow magnetic damping as an example, we reveal the electrical activity of skyrmion eigenmodes and propose it for magnon-photon splittin…
We study theoretically the electromagnon and its optical spectrum (OS) of the terahertz-frequency regime in the magnetic-spiral-induced multiferroic phases of the rare-earth (R) Mn perovskites, RMnO3, taking into account the elliptical deformation or the higher harmonics of the spiral spin configuration, which has been missed so far. A realistic spin Hamiltonian, which gives phase diagrams in agreement with experiments, resolves a long standing puzzle, i.e., the double-peak structure of the OS with a larger low-energy peak originating from magnon modes hybridized with the zone-edge state. We a…
Magnetic order and excitations in multiferroic DyMnO3 were studied by neutron scattering experiments using a single crystal prepared with enriched 162Dy isotope. The ordering of Mn moments exhibits pronounced hysteresis arising from the interplay between Mn and Dy magnetism which possesses a strong impact on the ferroelectric polarization. The magnon dispersion resembles that reported for TbMnO3. We identify the excitations at the magnetic zone center and near the zone boundary in the b direction, which can possess electromagnon character. The lowest frequency of the zone-center magnons is in …
Magnetic materials in which it is possible to control the topology of their magnetic order in real space or the topology of their magnetic excitations in reciprocal space are highly sought-after as platforms for alternative data storage and computing architectures. Here we show that multiferroic insulators, owing to their magneto-electric coupling, offer a natural and advantageous way to address these two different topologies using laser fields. We demonstrate that via a delicate balance between the energy injection from a high-frequency laser and dissipation, single skyrmions -- archetypical …
Low-energy magnon excitations in multiferroic BiFeO$_3$ were measured in detail as a function of temperature around several Brillouin zone centers by inelastic neutron scattering experiments on single crystals. Unique features around 1 meV are directly associated with the interplay of the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction and a small single-ion anisotropy. The temperature dependence of these and the exchange interactions were determined by fitting the measured magnon dispersion with spin-wave calculations. The spectra best fits an easy-axis type magnetic anisotropy and the deduced exchange and…
We present an investigation of the multiferroic lacunar spinel compound GeV$_4$S$_8$ using time-domain terahertz spectroscopy. We find three absorptions which either appear or shift at the antiferromagnetic transition temperature, T$_N = 17$ K, as S=1 magnetic moments develop on vanadium tetrahedra. Two of these absorptions are coupled to the magnetic state and one only appears below the Néel temperature, and is interpreted as a magnon. We also observe isosbestic points in the dielectric constant in both the temperature and frequency domains. Further, we perform analysis on the isosbestic feat…
We studied spin excitations of the multiferroic Ba2CoGe2O7 in high magnetic fields up to 33 T. In the electron spin resonance and far infrared absorption spectra we found several spin excitations beyond the two conventional magnon modes expected for such a two-sublattice antiferromagnet. We show that a multi-boson spin-wave theory can capture these unconventional modes, that include spin-stretching modes associated with an oscillating magnetic dipole (or only quadrupole) moment. The lack of the inversion symmetry allows these modes to become electric dipole active. We expect that the spin-stre…
Lattice and spin excitations have been studied by Raman scattering in hexagonal YbMnO3 single crystals. The temperature dependences of the phonon modes show that the E2 mode at 256 cm-1 related to the displacement of Mn and O ions in a-b plane is coupled to the spin order. The A1 phonon mode at 678 cm-1 presents a soft mode behavior at the Neel temperature. Connected to the motion of the apical oxygen ions along the c direction, this mode controls directly the Mn-Mn interactions between adjacent Mn planes and the superexchange path. Crystal field and magnon mode excitations have been identifie…
Spin excitations were studied by absorption spectroscopy in CaBaCo4O7 which is a type-I multiferroic compound with the largest magnetic-order induced ferroelectric polarization (ΔP=17mC/m2) reported, so far. We observed two optical magnon branches: a solely electric dipole allowed one and a mixed magnetoelectric resonance. The entangled magnetization and polarization dynamics of the magnetoelectric resonance gives rise to unidirectional light absorption, i.e. that magnon mode absorbs the electromagnetic radiation for one propagation direction but not for the opposite direction. Our systematic …
Raman scattering measurements on BiFeO3 single crystals show an important coupling between the magnetic order and lattice vibrations. The temperature evolution of phonons shows that the lowest energy E and A1 phonon modes are coupled to the spin order up to the Neel temperature. Furthermore, low temperature anomalies associated with the spin re-orientation are observed simultaneously in both the E phonon and the magnon. These results suggest that magnetostriction plays an important role in BiFeO3.
We report on the different roles of two orbital-active Fe$^{2+}$ at the A site and V$^{3+}$ at the B site in the magnetic excitations and on the anomalous spin wave broadening in FeV$_{2}$O$_{4}$. FeV$_{2}$O$_{4}$ exhibits three structural transitions and successive paramagnetic (PM)-collinear ferrimagnetic (CFI)-noncollinear ferrimagnetic (NCFI) transitions. The high-temperature tetragonal/PM -orthorhombic/CFI transition is accompanied by the appearance of an energy gap with a high magnitude in the magnetic excitations due to strong spin-orbit coupling induced anisotropy at the Fe$^{2+}$ site…
Various phenomena related to inhomogeneous magnetoelectric interaction are considered. The interrelation between spatial modulation of order parameter and electric polarization, known as flexoelectric effect in liquid crystals, in the case of magnetic media appears in a form of electric polarization induced by spin modulation and vice versa. This flexomagnetoelectric interaction is also related to the influence of ferroelectric domain structure on antiferromagnetic vector distribution, and to the magnetoelectric properties of micromagnetic structures. The influence of inhomogeneous magnetoelec…
Condensed matter systems admit topological collective excitations above a trivial ground state, an example being Chern insulators formed by Dirac bosons with a gap at finite energies. However, in contrast to electrons, there is no particle-number conservation law for collective excitations. This gives rise to particle number-nonconserving many-body interactions whose influence on single-particle topology is an open issue of fundamental interest in the field of topological quantum materials. Taking magnons in ferromagnets as an example, we uncover topological magnon insulators that are stabiliz…
Non-collinear two-dimensional triangular lattice antiferromagnets (2D TLAF) are currently an area of very active research due to their unique magnetic properties, which lead to non-trivial quantum effects that experimentally manifest themselves in the spin excitation spectra. Recent examples of such insulating 2D TLAF include (Y,Lu)MnO$_3$, LiCrO$_2$, and CuCrO$_2$. Hexagonal LuFeO3 is a recently synthesized 2D TLAF which exhibits properties of an ideal multiferroic material, partially because of the high spin ($S=5/2$) and strong magnetic super-exchange interactions. We report the full range …
We propose a model for the pair of electromagnon excitations observed in the class of multiferroic materials {\it R}MnO$_3$ ({\it R} is a rare-earth ion). The model is based on a harmonic cycloid ground state interacting with a zone-edge magnon and its twin excitation separated in momentum space by two times the cycloid wave vector. The pair of electromagnons is activated by cross coupling between magnetostriction and spin-orbit interactions. Remarkably, the spectral weight of the twin electromagnon is directly related to the presence of a magnetically induced oscillatory polarization in the g…
We performed Raman studies and a dielectric characterization of the pseudo-kagome Cu3Bi(SeO3)2O2X (X = Cl, Br). These compounds share competing nearest-neighbour ferromagnetic exchange and frustrating next-nearest-neighbour antiferromagnetic exchange as well as highly noncollinear magnetic ground state. However, at low temperature they differ with respect to the existence of inversion symmetry. For both compounds there exists a pronounced interplay of polar phonon modes with quantum magnetic fluctuations. A novel Raman mode appears for temperatures below the Neel temperature with a Fano linesh…
Type-II multiferroic materials, in which ferroelectric polarization is induced by inversion non-symmetric magnetic order, promise new and highly efficient multifunctional applications based on the mutual control of magnetic and electric properties. Although this phenomenon has to date been limited to low temperatures, here we report a giant pressure-dependence of the multiferroic critical temperature in CuBr$_2$. At 4.5 GPa, $T_\mathrm{C}$ is enhanced from 73.5 to 162 K, to our knowledge the highest value yet reported for a non-oxide type-II multiferroic. This growth shows no sign of saturatin…
Magnetodielectric materials are characterized by a strong coupling of magnetic and dielectric properties and in rare cases simultaneously exhibit both, magnetic and polar order. Among other multiferroics, TbMnO3 and GdMnO3 reveal a strong magneto-dielectric (ME) coupling and as a consequence fundamentally new spin excitations exist: Electro-active magnons, or electromagnons, i. e. spin waves which can be excited by ac electric fields. Here we show that these excitations appear in the phase with an incommensurate (IC) magnetic structure of the manganese spins. In external magnetic fields this I…
The phenomenological theory of ferroelectricity in spiral magnets presented in [M. Mostovoy, Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 067601 (2006)] is generalized to describe consistently states with both uniform and modulated-in-space ferroelectric polarizations. A key point in this description is the symmetric part of the magnetoelectric coupling since, although being irrelevant for the uniform component, it plays an essential role for the non-uniform part of the polarization. We illustrate this importance in generic examples of modulated magnetic systems: longitudinal and transverse spin-density wave states a…
Magnetic dc susceptibility between 1.5 and 800 K, ac susceptibility and magnetization, thermodynamic properties, temperature dependence of radio and audio-wave dielectric constants and conductivity, contact-free dielectric constants at mm-wavelengths, as well as ferroelectric polarization are reported for single crystalline BiFeO3. A well developed anomaly in the magnetic susceptibility signals the onset of antiferromagnetic order close to 635 K. Beside this anomaly no further indications of phase or glass transitions are indicated in the magnetic dc and ac susceptibilities down to the lowest …
We used Raman scattering to study the lattice and magnetic excitations in the hexagonal HoMnO3 single crystals. The E2 phonon mode at 237 cm-1 is affected by the magnetic order. This mode is related to the displacement of Mn and O ions in a-b plane and modulates the Mn-O-Mn bond angles in a-b plane and the in-plane Mn-Mn superexchange interaction. The mode at 269 cm-1 associated to the displacement of the apical Ho3+ ions along the c direction presents an abrupt change of slope at TN showing that the role of the rare earth ions can not be neglected in the magnetic transition. We have identifie…
The idea of embedding and transmitting information within the fluctuations of the magnetic moments of spins (spin waves) has been recently proposed and experimentally tested. The coherence of spin waves, which describes how well defined these excitations are, is of course vital to this process, and themost significant factor that affects the spin-wave coherence is temperature. Here we present neutron inelastic scattering measurements of the full threedimensional spin-wave dispersion in BiFeO3, which is one of the most promising functional multiferroic material, for temperatures from 5K to 700K…
We report on an investigation of optical properties of multiferroic CoCr$_{2}$O$_{4}$ at terahertz frequencies in magnetic fields up to 30 T. Below the ferrimagnetic transition (94 K), the terahertz response of CoCr$_{2}$O$_{4}$ is dominated by a magnon mode, which shows a steep magnetic-field dependence. We ascribe this mode to an exchange resonance between two magnetic sublattices with different $g$-factors. In the framework of a simple two-sublattice model (the sublattices are formed by Co$^{2+}$ and Cr$^{3+}$ ions), we find the inter-sublattice coupling constant, $λ= - (18 \pm 1)$ K, and t…
Complex low-temperature ordered states in chiral magnets are typically governed by a competition between multiple magnetic interactions. The chiral-lattice multiferroic Cu2OSeO3 became the first insulating helimagnetic material in which a long-range order of topologically stable spin vortices known as skyrmions was established. Here we employ state-of-the-art inelastic neutron scattering (INS) to comprehend the full three-dimensional spin excitation spectrum of Cu2OSeO3 over a broad range of energies. Distinct types of high- and low-energy dispersive magnon modes separated by an extensive ener…
We performed ultrafast time-resolved near-infrared pump, resonant soft X-ray diffraction probe measurements to investigate the coupling between the photoexcited electronic system and the spin cycloid magnetic order in multiferroic TbMnO3 at low temperatures. We observe melting of the long range antiferromagnetic order at low excitation fluences with a decay time constant of 22.3 +- 1.1 ps, which is much slower than the ~1 ps melting times previously observed in other systems. To explain the data we propose a simple model of the melting process where the pump laser pulse directly excites the el…
Here we present a detailed study of the THz and FIR response of the mixed perovskite manganite system Eu$_{1-x}$Ho$_x$MnO$_3$ for holmium concentrations x = 0.1 and 0.3. We compare the magnetic excitations of the four different magnetically ordered phases (A-type antiferromagnetic, sinusoidally modulated collinear, helical phases with spin planes perpendicular to the crystallographic a and c axes). The transition between the two latter phases goes hand in hand with a switching of the ferroelectric polarization from P||a to P||c. Special emphasis is paid to the temperature dependence of the exc…
The lacunar spinel GeV4S8 undergoes orbital and ferroelectric ordering at the Jahn-Teller transition around 30 K and exhibits antiferromagnetic order below about 14 K. In addition to this orbitally driven ferroelectricity, lacunar spinels are an interesting material class, as the vanadium ions form V4 clusters representing stable molecular entities with a common electron distribution and a well-defined level scheme of molecular states resulting in a unique spin state per V4 molecule. Here we report detailed x-ray, magnetic susceptibility, electrical resistivity, heat capacity, thermal expansio…
We present spin transport studies on a low-field, room-temperature magnetoelectric multiferroic polycrystalline $\text{Sr}_{3}\text{Co}_{2}\text{Fe}_{24}\text{O}_{41}$ (SCFO)|Pt heterostructure wherein a highly tunable transverse conical magnetic phase is responsible for static and dynamic magnetoelectric coupling. We measured angular dependence of spin Hall magnetoresistance (SMR) at constant magnetic fields ($H$) in the range of 50 to 100 kOe. Application of field below the critical value (2.5 kOe), yielded negative SMR and the $H$-evolution of normalized SMR exhibited a negative gradient. F…
A common scenario of magnetoelectric coupling in multiferroics is the electric polarization induced by spatially modulated spin structures. It is shown in this paper that the same mechanism works in magnetic dielectrics with inhomogeneous magnetization distribution: the domain walls and magnetic vortexes can be the sources of electric polarization. The electric field driven magnetic domain wall motion is observed in iron garnet films. The electric field induced nucleation of vortex state of magnetic nanodots is theoretically predicted and numerically simulated. From the practical point of view…
