Single-crystal investigations on the multiferroic material LiFe(WO$_4$)$_2$

TL;DR

This study investigates the crystal and magnetic structures of the multiferroic LiFe(WO$_4$)$_2$ using neutron diffraction and thermodynamic measurements, revealing complex magnetic phases and multiferroic behavior explained by the inverse Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya mechanism.

Contribution

The paper provides the first detailed single-crystal analysis of LiFe(WO$_4$)$_2$, identifying its magnetic phases and elucidating the multiferroic mechanism with experimental evidence.

Findings

Two magnetic phases with incommensurate order at 22.2 K and 19 K.

Multiferroic behavior explained by inverse Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya mechanism.

No additional commensurate phase observed up to 6 T.

Abstract

The crystal and magnetic structure of multiferroic LiFe(WO$_4$)$_2$ were investigated by temperature and magnetic-field dependent specific heat, susceptibility and neutron diffraction experiments on single crystals. Considering only the two nearest-neighbour magnetic interactions, the system forms a $J_1$, $J_2$ magnetic chain but more extended interactions are sizeable. Two different magnetic phases exhibiting long-range incommensurate order evolve at $T_{\text{N}1}\approx 22.2 \text{ K}$ and $T_{\text{N}2}\approx 19 \text{ K}$. First, a spin-density wave develops with moments lying in the $ac$ plane. In its multiferroic phase below $T_{\text{N}2}$, LiFe(WO$_4$)$_2$ exhibits a spiral arrangement with an additional spin-component along $b$. Therefore, the inverse Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya mechanism fully explains the multiferroic behavior in this material. A partially unbalanced multiferroic domain distribution was observed even in the absence of an applied electric field. For both phases only a slight temperature dependence of the incommensurability was observed and there is no commensurate phase emerging at low temperature or at finite magnetic fields up to $6\text{ T}$. LiFe(WO$_4$)$_2$ thus exhibits a simple phase diagram with the typical sequence of transitions for a type-II multiferroic material.