Single-domain ferromagnet of noncentrosymmetric uniaxial magnetic ions and magnetoelectric interaction

TL;DR

This paper investigates the magnetoelectric interactions in noncentrosymmetric uniaxial magnetic ions, predicting single-domain ferromagnetism in Fe-doped CaZnOS and explaining weak magnetization in Fe-doped ZnO and ZnS.

Contribution

It introduces a new understanding of magnetoelectric coupling in noncentrosymmetric ions and predicts single-domain ferromagnetism in specific doped materials.

Findings

Magnetic and electric dipole moments prefer antiparallel alignment.

Fe-doped CaZnOS is predicted to be a single-domain ferromagnet.

Weak magnetization hysteresis explained in Fe-doped ZnO and ZnS.

Abstract

The feasibility of a single-domain ferromagnet based on uniaxial magnetic ions was examined. For a noncentrosymmetric uniaxial magnetic ion of magnetic moment at a site of local electric dipole moment p, it is unknown to date whether the magnetic moment prefers to be parallel or antiparallel to the electric dipole moment. The nature of this magnetoelectric interaction was probed in terms of analogical reasoning based on the Rashba effect and density functional calculations. We show that the magnetic and electric dipole moments prefer an antiparallel arrangement, predict that Fe-doped CaZnOS is a single-domain ferromagnet like a bar magnet, and find the probable cause for the ferromagnetism and weak magnetization hysteresis in Fe-doped hexagonal ZnO and ZnS at very low dopant concentrations.