skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Spin-Induced Polarizations and Nonreciprocal Directional Dichroism of the Room-Temperature Multiferroic BiFeO3

Journal Article · · Physical Review. B, Condensed Matter and Materials Physics
 [1];  [1];  [2];  [2];  [3];  [3]
  1. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
  2. Budapest Univ. of Technology and Economics (Hungary)
  3. National Inst. of Chemical Physics and Biophysics (Estonia)

A microscopic model for the room-temperature multiferroic BiFeO3 that includes two Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions and single-ion anisotropy along the ferroelectric polarization predicts both the zero-field spectroscopic modes as well as their splitting and evolution in a magnetic field. Due to simultaneously broken time-reversal and spatial-inversion symmetries, the absorption of light changes as the magnetic field or the direction of light propagation is reversed. We discuss three physical mechanisms that may contribute to this absorption asymmetry known as directional dichroism: the spin current, magnetostriction, and single-ion anisotropy. We conclude that the directional dichroism in BiFeO3 is dominated by the spin-current polarization and is insensitive to the magnetostriction and easy-axis anisotropy. With three independent spin-current parameters, our model accurately describes the directional dichroism observed for magnetic field along [1, -1, 0]. Since some modes are almost transparent to light traveling in one direction but opaque for light traveling in the opposite direction, BiFeO3 can be used as a room-temperature optical diode at certain frequencies in the GHz to THz range. This work demonstrates that an analysis of the directional dichroism spectra based on an effective spin model supplemented by first-principles calculations can produce a quantitative microscopic theory of the magnetoelectric couplings in multiferroic materials.

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-00OR22725
OSTI ID:
1214507
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1215750
Journal Information:
Physical Review. B, Condensed Matter and Materials Physics, Vol. 92, Issue 9; ISSN 1098-0121
Publisher:
American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 25 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (53)

Dielectric hysteresis in single crystal BiFeO3 journal July 1970
Spiral magnetic ordering in bismuth ferrite journal August 1982
Very large spontaneous electric polarization in BiFeO3 single crystals at room temperature and its evolution under cycling fields journal July 2007
Space-time parity violation and magnetoelectric interactions in antiferromagnets journal June 2004
High-Field Study of Strong Magnetoelectric Coupling in Single-Domain Crystals of BiFeO 3 journal June 2010
Magnetoelectric Feedback among Magnetic Order, Polarization, and Lattice in Multiferroic BiFeO 3 journal November 2011
Negative magnetostrictive magnetoelectric coupling of BiFeO 3 journal August 2013
Electric-Field-Induced Spin Flop in BiFeO 3 Single Crystals at Room Temperature journal June 2008
Temperature-dependent properties of the magnetic order in single-crystal BiFeO 3 journal May 2011
Neutron diffraction study of the BiFeO 3 spin cycloid at low temperature journal June 2010
Low-temperature evolution of the modulated magnetic structure in the ferroelectric antiferromagnet BiFeO 3 journal October 2011
Electric field control of the magnetic state in BiFeO3 single crystals journal May 2008
Single ferroelectric and chiral magnetic domain of single-crystalline BiFeO 3 in an electric field journal September 2008
Spin Wave Measurements over the Full Brillouin Zone of Multiferroic BiFeO 3 journal February 2012
Magnetic Dispersion and Anisotropy in Multiferroic BiFeO 3 journal August 2012
Thermal evolution of the full three-dimensional magnetic excitations in the multiferroic BiFeO 3 journal November 2012
Possible Observation of Cycloidal Electromagnons in BiFeO 3 journal July 2008
Electric-field control of spin waves at room temperature in multiferroic BiFeO3 journal November 2010
Long-wavelength magnetic and magnetoelectric excitations in the ferroelectric antiferromagnet BiFeO 3 journal March 2011
Terahertz Spectroscopy of Spin Waves in Multiferroic BiFeO 3 in High Magnetic Fields journal June 2013
Origin of the long period magnetic ordering in BiFeO3 journal February 1995
Flexomagnetoelectric interaction in multiferroics journal August 2009
High Field Neutron Diffraction Studies on Metamagnetic Transition of Multiferroic BiFeO 3 journal December 2011
Weak ferromagnetism and magnetoelectric coupling in bismuth ferrite journal February 2005
Local Weak Ferromagnetism in Single-Crystalline Ferroelectric BiFeO 3 journal November 2011
Temperature-Dependent Interplay of Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya Interaction and Single-Ion Anisotropy in Multiferroic BiFeO 3 journal September 2014
Spin state and spectroscopic modes of multiferroic BiFeO 3 journal April 2013
Field dependence of the spin state and spectroscopic modes of multiferroic BiFeO 3 journal June 2013
Photon Momentum Effects in the Magneto-Optics of Excitons journal April 1960
Symmetry conditions for nonreciprocal light propagation in magnetic crystals journal January 2013
Enhanced Directional Dichroism of Terahertz Light in Resonance with Magnetic Excitations of the Multiferroic Ba 2 CoGe 2 O 7 Oxide Compound journal February 2011
Chirality of matter shows up via spin excitations journal August 2012
Theory of Magnetoelectric Resonance in Two-Dimensional S = 3/2 Antiferromagnet Ba 2 CoGe 2 O 7 via Spin-Dependent Metal-Ligand Hybridization Mechanism journal July 2011
One-way transparency of four-coloured spin-wave excitations in multiferroic materials journal February 2014
Terahertz Magnetoelectric Resonance Enhanced by Mutual Coupling of Electromagnons journal July 2013
Magnetoelectric resonance with electromagnons in a perovskite helimagnet journal December 2011
Spin Current and Magnetoelectric Effect in Noncollinear Magnets journal July 2005
Orientation dependence of the critical magnetic field for multiferroic BiFeO 3 journal September 2013
Optical coupling to spin waves in the cycloidal multiferroic Bi Fe O 3 journal January 2008
Microscopic theory of spin-polarization coupling in multiferroic transition metal oxides journal October 2007
Canted-spin-caused electric dipoles: A local symmetry theory journal May 2011
Ferroelectricity in Spiral Magnets journal February 2006
Role of the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction in multiferroic perovskites journal March 2006
Theory of Spin-Orbit Enhanced Electric-Field Control of Magnetism in Multiferroic BiFeO 3 journal June 2013
Theory of magneto-optical effects in helical multiferroic materials via toroidal magnon excitation journal May 2014
Unified model of ferroelectricity induced by spin order journal August 2013
General microscopic model of magnetoelastic coupling from first principles journal March 2015
Magnetic control of transverse electric polarization in BiFeO3 journal January 2015
Nonreciprocal Directional Dichroism and Toroidalmagnons in Helical Magnets journal February 2012
Electromagnon excitations in canted-spin multiferroics journal June 2013
Noncollinear magnetism and single-ion anisotropy in multiferroic perovskites journal September 2012
Projector augmented-wave method journal December 1994
From ultrasoft pseudopotentials to the projector augmented-wave method journal January 1999

Cited By (1)

Low-energy spin dynamics of orthoferrites AFeO$_3$ (A = Y, La, Bi) text January 2017

Similar Records

First-principles approach to the dynamic magnetoelectric couplings for the non-reciprocal directional dichroism in BiFeO3
Journal Article · Mon Apr 18 00:00:00 EDT 2016 · New Journal of Physics · OSTI ID:1214507

Complex strain evolution of polar and magnetic order in multiferroic BiFeO3 thin films
Journal Article · Fri Sep 21 00:00:00 EDT 2018 · Nature Communications · OSTI ID:1214507

Spin state and spectroscopic modes of multiferroic BiFeO3
Journal Article · Fri Apr 19 00:00:00 EDT 2013 · Physical Review. B, Condensed Matter and Materials Physics · OSTI ID:1214507

Related Subjects