Magnetoelectric MnPS3 thiophosphate as a new candidate for ferrotoroidicity

TL;DR

This study investigates MnPS3, revealing its potential as a ferrotoroidic material due to its unique magnetoelectric properties and domain manipulability, marking a significant step in multiferroic research.

Contribution

The paper demonstrates that MnPS3 exhibits a magnetoelectric coupling with a toroidic moment, proposing it as a new candidate for ferrotoroidicity based on neutron polarimetry evidence.

Findings

MnPS3 undergoes antiferromagnetic transition at 78 K.

The magnetic point-group allows linear magnetoelectric coupling.

MnPS3 can manipulate antiferromagnetic domains via external fields.

Abstract

We have revisited the magnetic structure of manganese phosphorus trisulfide MnPS3 using neutron diffrac- tion and polarimetry. MnPS3 undergoes a transition toward a collinear antiferromagnetic order at 78 K. The resulting magnetic point-group breaks both the time reversal and the space inversion thus allowing a linear magnetoelectric coupling. Neutron polarimetry was subsequently used to prove that this coupling provides a way to manipulate the antiferromagnetic domains simply by cooling the sample under crossed magnetic and electrical fields, in agreement with the nondiagonal form of the magnetoelectric tensor. In addition, this tensor has, in principle, an antisymmetric part that results in a toroidic moment and provides with a pure ferrotoroidic compound.