Regensburg 2010 – scientific programme
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KR: Fachverband Kristallographie
KR 9: Multiferroics II (Joint Session of MA, DF, KR, DS)
KR 9.1: Talk
Monday, March 22, 2010, 14:00–14:15, H3
Switching of a spin-spiral-induced polarization in multiferroic MnWO4 — •Tim Hoffmann1, Dennis Meier1, Petra Becker-Bohatý2, Ladislav Bohatý2, and Manfred Fiebig1 — 1HISKP, Universität Bonn — 2Institut für Kristallographie, Universität zu Köln
Coexisting ferroic orders become interesting when there is an interaction between them. Especially applying an electric field and thus changing the magnetic order is highly desirable for possible applications. In spite of the declared interest in multiferroics to switch a magnetization by an electric field nothing is known about the dynamics of the actual switching process.
The coupling of ferroelectric and magnetic order is intrinsically strong in spin-spiral multiferroics, where ferroelectricity emerges as a consequence of complex magnetic long-range order. Here we observe the manipulation of magnetically-induced ferroelectric domains in MnWO4 by optical second harmonic generation (SHG). Application of an electric field allows to transform the sample to an electric as well as magnetic single-domain state. Moreover we obtained images of the domain structures during the transition revealing the growth of the domains. When cooled in zero-field, the domains have a bubble-like topology. Interestingly, after recovery from a single domain state the shape changes to a stripe structure and the domain size is significantly increased. Effects of the shape and duration of the electric-field poling pulses are investigated. Furthermore, in contrast to typical ionic ferroelectrics the spontaneous polarization can be switched without fatigue – no defects or pinning effects constrain the movement of domain walls.
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