Multiferroicity and colossal magneto-capacitance in Cr-thiospinels

The sulfur based Cr-spinels RCr 2 S 4 with R = Cd and Hg exhibit the coexistence of ferromagnetic and ferroelectric properties together with a pronounced magnetocapacitive coupling. While in CdCr 2 S 4 purely ferromagnetic order is established, in HgCr 2 S 4 a bond-frustrated magnetic ground state i...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Phase transitions 2006-12, Vol.79 (12), p.1065-1082
Main Authors: Hemberger, J., Lunkenheimer, P., Fichtl, R., Weber, S., Tsurkan, V., Loidl, A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Magneto-capacitance
Multiferroicity
Relaxor ferroelectric
Spinel chalcogenide
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Summary:The sulfur based Cr-spinels RCr 2 S 4 with R = Cd and Hg exhibit the coexistence of ferromagnetic and ferroelectric properties together with a pronounced magnetocapacitive coupling. While in CdCr 2 S 4 purely ferromagnetic order is established, in HgCr 2 S 4 a bond-frustrated magnetic ground state is realized, which, however, can easily be driven towards a ferromagnetic configuration in weak magnetic fields. This article shall review our recent investigations of both compounds. Besides the characterization of the magnetic properties, the complex dielectric permittivity was studied by means of broadband dielectric spectroscopy as well as measurements of polarization hysteresis and pyro-currents. The observed colossal magneto-capacitive effect at the magnetic transition seems to be driven by an enormous variation of the relaxation dynamics.
ISSN:0141-1594
1029-0338
DOI:10.1080/01411590601067193