Successive Magnetic-Field-Induced Transitions and Colossal Magnetoelectric Effect in
- Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Rutgers Univ., Piscataway, NJ (United States). Rutgers Center for Emergent Materials. Dept. of Physics and Astronomy
- Rutgers Univ., Piscataway, NJ (United States). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy. Inst. for Advanced Materials, Devices and Nanotechnology (IAMDN)
- Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
- Rutgers Univ., Piscataway, NJ (United States). Rutgers Center for Emergent Materials. Dept. of Physics and Astronomy
In this paper, we report the discovery of a metamagnetic phase transition in a polar antiferromagnet Ni3TeO6 that occurs at 52 T. The new phase transition accompanies a colossal magnetoelectric effect, with a magnetic-field-induced polarization change of 0.3 μC/cm2, a value that is 4 times larger than for the spin-flop transition at 9 T in the same material, and also comparable to the largest magnetically induced polarization changes observed to date. Via density-functional calculations we construct a full microscopic model that describes the data. We model the spin structures in all fields and clarify the physics behind the 52 T transition. The high-field transition involves a competition between multiple different exchange interactions which drives the polarization change through the exchange-striction mechanism. Finally, the resultant spin structure is rather counterintuitive and complex, thus providing new insights on design principles for materials with strong magnetoelectric coupling.
- Research Organization:
- Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Rutgers Univ., Piscataway, NJ (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); National Science Foundation (NSF); State of Florida (United States); Rutgers Univ. (United States)
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC52-06NA25396; BES FWP LANLF100; DMR-1157490; DMREF 12-33349
- OSTI ID:
- 1325637
- Alternate ID(s):
- OSTI ID: 1224627
- Report Number(s):
- LA-UR-15-26440
- Journal Information:
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 115, Issue 13; ISSN 0031-9007
- Publisher:
- American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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