Multiferroic nanoregions and a memory effect in cupric oxide

W. B. Wu, D. J. Huang, J. Okamoto, S. W. Huang, Y. Sekio, T. Kimura, and C. T. Chen

Phys. Rev. B 81, 172409 – Published 24 May 2010

Abstract

We report the observation of multiferroic nanoregions in cupric oxide, CuO, by means of resonant soft x-ray magnetic scattering. There exists an anomalous memory effect for the direction of the electric polarization in the commensurate-incommensurate magnetic transition that coincides with the ferroelectric transition. Scattering results, incorporated with simulations of diffuse scattering, lead us to propose a scenario that preserved spin handedness in the multiferroic nanoregions is responsible for this memory effect in the magnetically induced ferroelectric properties of CuO.

Received 11 March 2010

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.81.172409

Authors & Affiliations

W. B. Wu¹, D. J. Huang^1,2,*, J. Okamoto¹, S. W. Huang^3,1, Y. Sekio⁴, T. Kimura⁴, and C. T. Chen¹

¹National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center, Hsinchu 30076, Taiwan
²Department of Physics, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu 30013, Taiwan
³Department of Electrophysics, National Chiao-Tung University, Hsinchu 30010, Taiwan
⁴Division of Materials Physics, Graduate School of Engineering and Science, Osaka University, Osaka 560-8531, Japan

^*Corresponding author; djhuang@nsrrc.org.tw

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Issue

Vol. 81, Iss. 17 — 1 May 2010

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