Magneto- to electro-active transmutation of spin waves in ErMnO3

Laura Chaix (1) , Sophie de Brion (2) , Sylvain Petit (3) , Rafik Ballou (2) , Louis-Pierre Regnault (4) , Jacques Ollivier (5) , Jean-Blaise Brubach (6) , Pascale Roy (6) , Jérôme Debray (7) , Pascal Lejay (8) , Andres Cano (9, 10) , Eric Ressouche (4) , Virginie Simonet (2)

1 NEEL - MRS - Matériaux, Rayonnements, Structure
2 NEEL - MagSup - Magnétisme et Supraconductivité
3 LLB - UMR 12 - Laboratoire Léon Brillouin
4 MDN - Magnétisme et Diffusion Neutronique
5 ILL - Institut Laue-Langevin
6 SSOLEIL - Synchrotron SOLEIL
7 NEEL - CrisMass - Cristaux massifs
8 NEEL - C2MA - Croissance Cristalline et MicroAnalyse
9 ESRF - European Synchrotron Radiation Facility
10 ICMCB - Institut de Chimie de la Matière Condensée de Bordeaux

The low energy dynamical properties of the multiferroic hexagonal perovskite ErMnO3 have been studied by inelastic neutron scattering as well as terahertz and far infrared spectroscopies on synchrotron source. From these complementary techniques, we have determined the magnon and crystal field spectra and identified a zone center magnon only excitable by the electric field of an electromagnetic wave. Using comparison with the isostructural YMnO3 compound and crystal field calculations, we propose that this dynamical magnetoelectric process is due to the hybridization of a magnon with an electro-active crystal field transition.

Mots clés: electromagnon; dynamical magnetoelectric effect; neutron scattering; THz spectroscopy

Domaines: Electrons fortement corrélés [cond-mat.str-el]

Laura Chaix, Sophie de Brion, Sylvain Petit, Rafik Ballou, Louis-Pierre Regnault, et al.. Magneto- to electro-active transmutation of spin waves in ErMnO3. Physical Review Letters, 2014, 112 (13), pp.137201. ⟨10.1103/PhysRevLett.112.137201⟩. ⟨hal-00950376⟩