Search

The class of RMn2O5 (R = Ho, Tb, Y, Eu) compounds offers multiferroic properties where the refined magnetic zig-zag order breaks the inversion symmetry. Varying the temperature, the system undergoes a magnetic and a subsequent ferroelectric phase transition where the ferroelectricity is magnetically induced. We propose a modified anisotropic Heisenberg model that can be used as a tractable analytical model studying the properties of those antiferromagnetic zig-zag spin chains. Based on a finite temperature Green's function method, it is shown that the polarization is induced solely by different exchange couplings of the two different Mn4+ and Mn3+ magnetic ions. We calculate the excitation energy of the spin system for finite temperatures, which for its part determines the temperature dependent magnetization and polarization. The ferroelectric phase transition is manifested as a kink in the excitation energy. The variation of the polarization by an external magnetic field depends strongly on the direction of that field. Whereas, the polarization in b-direction increases with an external magnetic field as well in b-direction it can be switched for strong fields in a-direction. The results based on that modified Heisenberg model are in qualitative agreement with experimental data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The class of RMn2O5 (R = Ho, Tb, Y, Eu) compounds offers multiferroic properties where the refined magnetic zig-zag order breaks the inversion symmetry. Varying the temperature, the system undergoes a magnetic and a subsequent ferroelectric phase transition where the ferroelectricity is magnetically induced. We propose a modified anisotropic Heisenberg model that can be used as a tractable analytical model studying the properties of those antiferromagnetic zig-zag spin chains. Based on a finite temperature Green's function method, it is shown that the polarization is induced solely by different exchange couplings of the two different Mn4+ and Mn3+ magnetic ions. We calculate the excitation energy of the spin system for finite temperatures, which for its part determines the temperature dependent magnetization and polarization. The ferroelectric phase transition is manifested as a kink in the excitation energy. The variation of the polarization by an external magnetic field depends strongly on the direction of that field. Whereas, the polarization in b-direction increases with an external magnetic field as well in b-direction it can be switched for strong fields in a-direction. The results based on that modified Heisenberg model are in qualitative agreement with experimental data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have calculated the temperature, magnetic field, and ion doping dependence of the magnetic and electric properties in Fe-doped BaTiO3 using a microscopic model and the Green's function technique. It is shown that the ferromagnetic and multiferroic properties observed at room temperature in Fe doped BaTiO3 could be due to the super exchange interactions between Fe3+ ions in different occupational sites associated with oxygen vacancies and to the exchange coupling of Fe ions with mixed valence, Fe3+ and Fe4+. There is a multiferroic region which depends strongly on the Fe-doping concentration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]