H-induced stair-like metamagnetic transitions, large magnetocaloric and magnetoelectric effects related to the 4f electrons of rare-earth ions were revealed in chromite crystals.

Using magnetoelectric measurements and neutron diffraction, we investigated multiferroic properties of Co 2 Y hexaferrite Ba 0.3 Sr 1.7 Co 2 Fe 12 O 22 in zero and finite magnetic field (H ⊥ c). Upon zero-field cooling, a longitudinal heliconical magnetic structure was observed below 280 K, which involves incommensurate planar helical ordering. When the magnetic field was applied perpendicular to its c axis, electric polarization was observed and the incommensurate ordering was replaced by a commensurate one as commonly observed in other hexaferrites. Electric polarization remained at its maximum during field reversal at 10 K, which indicates that magnetic anisotropy within the basal planes stabilizes the field-induced electric polarization.

An electromagnon in the magnetoelectric (ME) hexaferrite Ba_{0.5}Sr_{2.5}Co_{2}Fe_{24}O_{41} (Co_{2}Z-type) single crystal is identified by time-domain terahertz (THz) spectroscopy. The associated THz resonance is active on the electric field (E^{ω}) of the THz light parallel to the c axis (∥ [001]), whose spectral weight develops at a markedly high temperature, coinciding with a transverse conical magnetic order below 410 K. The resonance frequency of 1.03 THz at 20 K changes -8.7% and +5.8% under external magnetic field (H) of 2 kOe along [001] and [120], respectively. A model Hamiltonian describing the conical magnetic order elucidates that the dynamical ME effect arises from antiphase motion of spins which are coupled with modulating electric dipoles through the exchange striction mechanism. Moreover, the calculated frequency shift points to the key role of the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction that is altered by static electric polarization change under different H.

The magnetocaloric effect (MCE) associated with the spin transitions of alternating longitudinal conical (ALC)-mixed conical (MC) and MC-ferrimagnetic (FIM) states in a Ba0.3Sr1.7Co2Fe12O22 single crystal has been investigated. For magnetic field directions applied along either the [120] or [001] directions, the crystal is found to exhibit the conventional and inverse MCE near the ALC-MC (T(N1) = 235 K) and MC-FIM (T(N2) = 348 K) states, respectively. The dependence of the magnetic entropy on the magnetic field also exhibits such sign change behaviors in the MCE, which is attributed to the magnetic field induced gradual collapse of heliconical magnetic order.

In this Letter, we report the effect of replacing Mn2+ ions with Ni2+ on the ferroelectricity of multiferroic MnWO4 single crystals. When the amount of substitution was close to 16%, the sign of ferroelectric polarization spontaneously became negative with respect to initial dc poling field at a few degrees below TC. Neutron diffraction intensities revealed a sudden change in the underlying spiral spin ordering that occurred coincidentally with the observed sign reversal. This unusual behavior in zero magnetic fields suggests that strong competitions between the two different magnetic ions may provide an efficient route to manipulation of existing multiferroics.