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VOLUME 103 (2016) | ISSUE 4 | PAGE 274
Room-temperature electric polarization induced by phase separation in multiferroic GdMn2O5
DOI: 10.7868/S0370274X1604007X
Abstract
It was generally accepted until recently that multiferroics RMn2O5 crystallized in the centrosymmetric Pbam space group and ferroelectricity in them could exist only at low temperatures due to the magnetic exchange striction. Recent comprehensive structural studies (Phys. Rev. Lett. 114, 117601 (2015)) have shown that the actual symmetry of RMn2O5 at room temperature is a noncentrosymmetric monoclinic Pm sp. gr., which allows room temperature ferroelectricity to exist. However, such a polarization has not yet been found. Our electric polarization loop studies of GdMn2O5 have revealed that a polarization does exist up to room temperature. This polarization occurs mainly in restricted polar domains that arise in the initial GdMn2O5 matrix due to phase separation and charge carrier self-organization. These domains are self-consistent with the matrix, which leads to the noncentrosymmetricity of the entire crystal. The polarization is controlled by a magnetic field, thereby demonstrating the presence of magnetoelectric coupling. The low-temperature ferroelectricity enhances the restricted polar domain polarization along the b-axis.