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Multiferroic phase of doped delafossite CuFeO2 identified using inelastic neutron scattering

Journal Article · · Physical Review B
Multiferroic materials allow the electric polarization to be controlled by switching the direction of magnetic ordering and consequently offer prospects for many new technological applications [1 4]. Because multiferroic behavior has been found in materials that exhibit complex (non-collinear and incommensurate) magnetic order, it is essential to know the spin arrangement of the ground states in these materials [4 9]. In many cases, elastic neutron scattering measurements alone are not sufficient to distinguish among several potential complex magnetic states. We report inelastic neutron scattering (INS) measurements that provide a distinct dynamical fingerprint for the multiferroic ground state of 3.5% Ga-doped CuFeO2. The complex ground state is stabilized by the displacement of the oxygen atoms [10], which are also responsible for the multiferroic coupling predicted by Arima [8]. By comparing the observed and calculated spectrum of spin excitations, we conclude that the magnetic ground state is a distorted screwtype spin configuration. The exchange interactions that stabilize this structure are consistent with those obtained from inelastic measurements [11, 12] on undoped CuFeO2.
Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)
Sponsoring Organization:
ORNL LDRD Director's R&D
DOE Contract Number:
AC05-00OR22725
OSTI ID:
986795
Journal Information:
Physical Review B, Journal Name: Physical Review B Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 82; ISSN 1098-0121; ISSN 1550-235X
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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