Coupling of Frustrated Ising Spins to the Magnetic Cycloid in Multiferroic

O Prokhnenko, R Feyerherm, M Mostovoy, N Aliouane… - Physical review …, 2007 - APS
O Prokhnenko, R Feyerherm, M Mostovoy, N Aliouane, E Dudzik, AUB Wolter, A Maljuk
Physical review letters, 2007APS
We report on diffraction measurements on multiferroic TbMnO 3 which demonstrate that the
Tb-and Mn-magnetic orders are coupled below the ferroelectric transition T FE= 28 K. For T<
T FE the magnetic propagation vectors (τ) for Tb and Mn are locked so that τ Tb= τ Mn, while
below TN Tb= 7 K we find that τ Tb and τ Mn lock-in to rational values of 3 7 b* and 2 7 b*,
respectively, and obey the relation 3 τ Tb-τ Mn= 1. We explain this novel matching of wave
vectors within the frustrated anisotropic next-nearest-neighbor Ising model coupled to a …
We report on diffraction measurements on multiferroic which demonstrate that the Tb- and Mn-magnetic orders are coupled below the ferroelectric transition . For the magnetic propagation vectors (τ) for Tb and Mn are locked so that τTb=τMn, while below we find that τTb and τMn lock-in to rational values of and , respectively, and obey the relation . We explain this novel matching of wave vectors within the frustrated anisotropic next-nearest-neighbor Ising model coupled to a periodic external field produced by the Mn-spin order. The τTb=τMn behavior is recovered when Tb magnetization is small, while the regime is stabilized at low temperatures by a peculiar arrangement of domain walls in the ordered state of Ising-like Tb spins.
American Physical Society