TY - JOUR

T1 - Tuning magnetoelectricity in a mixed-anisotropy antiferromagnet

AU - Fogh, Ellen

AU - Klemke, Bastian

AU - Reehuis, Manfred

AU - Bourges, Philippe

AU - Niedermayer, Christof

AU - Holm-Dahlin, Sonja

AU - Zaharko, Oksana

AU - Schefer, Jürg

AU - Kristensen, Andreas B.

AU - Sørensen, Michael K.

AU - Paeckel, Sebastian

AU - Pedersen, Kasper S.

AU - Hansen, Rasmus E.

AU - Pages, Alexandre

AU - Moerner, Kimmie K.

AU - Meucci, Giulia

AU - Soh, Jian Rui

AU - Bombardi, Alessandro

AU - Vaknin, David

AU - Rønnow, Henrik M.

AU - Syljuåsen, Olav F.

AU - Christensen, Niels B.

AU - Toft-Petersen, Rasmus

N1 - Funding Information: This work was supported by the European Research Council through the Synergy network HERO (Grant No. 810451). We thank the EU Interreg program MAXESS4FUN for Cross Border and Society for funding the simulation work. We are grateful for neutron beamtime received for this project at the instruments TriCS and RITA-II at the SINQ neutron spallation source at the Paul Scherrer Institute, at the E5 diffractometer at the BER-II research reactor at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin, and at the 4F1 spectrometer at the research reactor at the Laboratoire Leon Brillouin. We acknowledge Diamond Light Source for beamtime on I16 (Proposal No. MM30817-1). This project was supported by the Danish national Council for Research infrastructure (NUFI) through DANSCATT and the ESS-Lighthouse Q-MAT. Ames National Laboratory is operated for the U.S. Department of Energy by Iowa State University under Contract No. DEAC02-07CH11358. We thank M. Laver for assistance with neutron scattering experiments, A. Sokolowski for support with pyrocurrent measurements and J. Li for samples. Funding Information: This work was supported by the European Research Council through the Synergy network HERO (Grant No. 810451). We thank the EU Interreg program MAXESS4FUN for Cross Border and Society for funding the simulation work. We are grateful for neutron beamtime received for this project at the instruments TriCS and RITA-II at the SINQ neutron spallation source at the Paul Scherrer Institute, at the E5 diffractometer at the BER-II research reactor at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin, and at the 4F1 spectrometer at the research reactor at the Laboratoire Leon Brillouin. We acknowledge Diamond Light Source for beamtime on I16 (Proposal No. MM30817-1). This project was supported by the Danish national Council for Research infrastructure (NUFI) through DANSCATT and the ESS-Lighthouse Q-MAT. Ames National Laboratory is operated for the U.S. Department of Energy by Iowa State University under Contract No. DEAC02-07CH11358. We thank M. Laver for assistance with neutron scattering experiments, A. Sokolowski for support with pyrocurrent measurements and J. Li for samples. Publisher Copyright: © 2023, The Author(s).

PY - 2023/6/9

Y1 - 2023/6/9

N2 - Control of magnetization and electric polarization is attractive in relation to tailoring materials for data storage and devices such as sensors or antennae. In magnetoelectric materials, these degrees of freedom are closely coupled, allowing polarization to be controlled by a magnetic field, and magnetization by an electric field, but the magnitude of the effect remains a challenge in the case of single-phase magnetoelectrics for applications. We demonstrate that the magnetoelectric properties of the mixed-anisotropy antiferromagnet LiNi1−xFexPO4 are profoundly affected by partial substitution of Ni2+ ions with Fe2+ on the transition metal site. This introduces random site-dependent single-ion anisotropy energies and causes a lowering of the magnetic symmetry of the system. In turn, magnetoelectric couplings that are symmetry-forbidden in the parent compounds, LiNiPO4 and LiFePO4, are unlocked and the dominant coupling is enhanced by almost two orders of magnitude. Our results demonstrate the potential of mixed-anisotropy magnets for tuning magnetoelectric properties.

AB - Control of magnetization and electric polarization is attractive in relation to tailoring materials for data storage and devices such as sensors or antennae. In magnetoelectric materials, these degrees of freedom are closely coupled, allowing polarization to be controlled by a magnetic field, and magnetization by an electric field, but the magnitude of the effect remains a challenge in the case of single-phase magnetoelectrics for applications. We demonstrate that the magnetoelectric properties of the mixed-anisotropy antiferromagnet LiNi1−xFexPO4 are profoundly affected by partial substitution of Ni2+ ions with Fe2+ on the transition metal site. This introduces random site-dependent single-ion anisotropy energies and causes a lowering of the magnetic symmetry of the system. In turn, magnetoelectric couplings that are symmetry-forbidden in the parent compounds, LiNiPO4 and LiFePO4, are unlocked and the dominant coupling is enhanced by almost two orders of magnitude. Our results demonstrate the potential of mixed-anisotropy magnets for tuning magnetoelectric properties.

U2 - 10.1038/s41467-023-39128-7

DO - 10.1038/s41467-023-39128-7

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 37296135

AN - SCOPUS:85161655311

VL - 14

JO - Nature Communications

JF - Nature Communications

SN - 2041-1723

IS - 1

M1 - 3408

ER -