Berlin 2015 – scientific programme

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KR: Fachgruppe Kristallographie

KR 4: Multiferroics I (DF jointly with DS, KR, MA, TT)

KR 4.11: Talk

Wednesday, March 18, 2015, 12:15–12:30, EB 107

Stability of magnetic and electric domains against chemical doping in hexagonal manganites — •Ehsan Hassanpour Yesaghi, Viktor Wegmayr, Jakob Schaab, Dennis Meier, and Manfred Fiebig — Department of Materials, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland

The unique properties of magnetoelectric multiferroics are, to a large extent, determined by the coexistence and interaction of magnetic and electric domains. A major challenge towards future applications is to optimize the properties of these domains, such as their transport, without weakening or even losing the existing multiferroic order. Here, we present our study of ferroelectric and antiferromagnetic domains in chemically doped hexagonal manganites. We show that the electronic conductance of ErMnO₃ can be enhanced or suppressed by introducing either divalent (Ca²⁺) or tetravalent (Zr⁴⁺, Ti⁴⁺) ions into the system. Using piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM) and optical second harmonic generation (SHG) we monitor the corresponding changes on the level of domains. We find that the RMnO₃-characteristic domain topography, as well as the multiferroic transition temperature, are robust against the applied ionic alteration, which demonstrates the usability of chemical doping for non-perturbative property-engineering of multiferroic domains.