Superexchange-Driven Magnetoelectricity in Magnetic Vortices

TL;DR

This paper reveals that magnetic vortices coupled with lattice distortions via superexchange can produce a significantly enhanced linear magnetoelectric response, demonstrated through ab initio calculations on Kagome lattice structures.

Contribution

It introduces a new mechanism for large magnetoelectric effects in magnetic vortices driven by superexchange interactions, with specific design rules for practical materials.

Findings

Magnetic vortices with superexchange coupling exhibit large magnetoelectric responses.

Ab initio calculations show a magnetoelectric coefficient 30 times larger than typical materials.

Design principles for realizing such effects in real materials are identified.

Abstract

We demonstrate that magnetic vortices in which spins are coupled to polar lattice distortions via superexchange exhibit an unusually large linear magnetoelectric response. We show that the periodic arrays of vortices formed by frustrated spins on Kagom\'e lattices provide a realization of this concept; our {\it ab initio} calculations for such a model structure yield a magnetoelectric coefficient that is 30 times larger than that of prototypical single phase magnetoelectrics. Finally, we identify the design rules required to obtain such a response in a practical material.