Uniaxial-stress control of spin-driven ferroelectricity in multiferroic Ba(2)CoGe(2)O(7).

We have demonstrated that spin-driven ferroelectricity in a tetragonal multiferroic Ba(2)CoGe(2)O(7) is controlled by applying uniaxial stress. We found that the application of compressive stress along the [110] direction leads to a 45° or 135° rotation of the sublattice magnetization of the staggered antiferromagnetic order in this system. This allows the spontaneous electric polarization to appear along the c axis. The present study suggests that an application of anisotropic stress, which is the simplest way to control symmetry of matter, can induce a variety of cross-correlated phenomena in spin-driven multiferroics.

Citation

Taro Nakajima, Yusuke Tokunaga, Vilmos Kocsis, Yasujiro Taguchi, Yoshinori Tokura, Taka-Hisa Arima. Uniaxial-stress control of spin-driven ferroelectricity in multiferroic Ba(2)CoGe(2)O(7). Physical review letters. 2015 Feb 13;114(6):067201

PMID: 25723241

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