Publication Date:
2017-07-01
Description:
Spin-phonon interactions are central to many interesting phenomena, ranging from superconductivity to magnetoelectric effects. However, they are believed to have a negligible influence on the structural behavior of most materials. For example, magnetic perovskite oxides often undergo structural transitions accompanied by magnetic signatures whose minuteness suggests that the underlying spin-phonon couplings are largely irrelevant. We present an exception to this rule, showing that novel effects can occur as a consequence. Our first-principles calculations reveal that spin-phonon interactions are essential to reproduce the experimental observations on the phase diagram of magnetoelectric multiferroic BiCoO 3 . Moreover, we predict that, under compression, these couplings lead to an unprecedented temperature-driven double-reentrant sequence of ferroelectric transitions. We propose how to modify BiCoO 3 via chemical doping to reproduce such marked effects under ambient conditions, thereby yielding useful multifunctionality.
Electronic ISSN:
2375-2548
Topics:
Natural Sciences in General
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