Novel multiferroics with ferromagnetic phase induced in paraelectric antiferromagnets by electric field application

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that applying an electric field to EuTiO3 induces a ferromagnetic phase in a paraelectric antiferromagnet, revealing a way to control multiferroic phases via magnetoelectric coupling.

Contribution

The study calculates the phase diagram of EuTiO3 under electric fields using Landau-Ginzburg-Devonshire theory, showing electric field-induced ferromagnetism and estimating critical fields for phase transitions.

Findings

Electric field induces ferromagnetic phase in EuTiO3.

Critical electric field for phase transition is approximately 0.40×10^6 V/cm.

Electric field control can switch between antiferromagnetic and ferromagnetic phases.

Abstract

The phase diagram of a quantum paraelectric antiferromagnet EuTiO3 under an external electric field was calculated using Landau-Ginzburg-Devonshire theory. It was shown that the application of an external electric field E leads to the appearance of a ferromagnetic phase due to the magnetoelectric coupling. In particular, electric field application decreases the transition temperature TAFM to antiferromagnetic (AFM) phase and induces ferromagnetic (FM) phase, so that at some E field larger than the critical field (Ecr), TFM becomes higher than TAFM and the FM phase appears. Note that Ecr increases and magnetization decreases as the temperature increases. The value of the critical field Ecr = 0.40*10^6 V/cm we calculated appeared close to the value Ecr = 0.5*10^6 V/cm obtained recently by Ryan et al. with the help of density functional theory for EuTiO3 film under a compressive strain produced by substrate. At the fields E >0.83*10^6 V/cm, AFM disappears for all considered temperatures and so FM becomes the only stable magnetic phase. We find that ferromagnetic phase can be induced by an E-field in other paraelectric antiferromagnet oxides with a positive AFM-type magnetoelectric (ME) coupling coefficient and negative FM-type ME coupling coefficient. In particular, the critical E-field was estimated for another paraelectric antiferromagnet Sr0.7Ba0.3MnO3 as 0.2x10^5V/cm at 0 K. Analysis of the dependence of magnetization and antimagnetization on the external electric field and the polarization induced by the field, which yields the magnetoelectric coupling, is reported. The results show the possibility to control multiferroicity, including the FM and AFM phases, with help of an electric field application.