A Monte-Carlo Study on the Coupling of Magnetism and Ferroelectricity in the Hexagonal Multiferroic RMnO3

Abstract The ferroelectric phase transition in RMnO 3 breaks both Z 3 and Z 2 symmetries, giving rise to 6 structural domains. Topological protected vortices are formed at the junctions of all 6 domains, and the ferroelectric phase transition is closely related to these Z 6 vortices. In this work, Monte-Carlo studies on both the ferroelectric and magnetic transition have been performed on RMnO 3 system. The magnetic simulation results on lattices with different structural domain distributions induced by external electric field and simulated quenching show different magnetic transition temperature T s , indicating that the coupling of magnetism and ferroelectricity is through the Z 6 structural domain. At extreme case, lattice quenched from above the ferroelectric transition results in high vortex density, which can drive the system into spin glass. View Full-Tex