Roomerature spin-spiral multiferroicity in high-pressure cupric oxide
Research output: Contribution to journal › Research article › Contributed › peer-review
Contributors
Abstract
Multiferroic materials, in which ferroelectric and magnetic ordering coexist, are of fundamental interest for the development of multi-state memory devices that allow for electrical writing and non-destructive magnetic readout operation. The great challenge is to create multiferroic materials that operate at room temperature and have a large ferroelectric polarization P. Cupric oxide, CuO, is promising because it exhibits a significant polarization, that is, P∼0.1 μC cm -2, for a spin-spiral multiferroic. Unfortunately, CuO is only ferroelectric in a temperature range of 20 K, from 210 to 230 K. Here, by using a combination of density functional theory and Monte Carlo calculations, we establish that pressure-driven phase competition induces a giant stabilization of the multiferroic phase of CuO, which at 20-40 GPa becomes stable in a domain larger than 300 K, from 0 to T>300 K. Thus, under high pressure, CuO is predicted to be a roomerature multiferroic with large polarization.
Details
Original language | English |
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Article number | 2511 |
Journal | Nature communications |
Volume | 4 |
Publication status | Published - 23 Sept 2013 |
Peer-reviewed | Yes |