Magnetism-Driven Ferroelectricity in Double Perovskite Y₂NiMnO₆

Abstract

We report the discovery of multiferroic behavior in double perovskite Y2NiMnO6. X-ray diffraction shows that the material has a centrosymmetric crystal structure of space group P2(1)/n with Ni(2+)/Mn(4+) ordering. This result is further confirmed by aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy combined with atomic resolution electron energy loss spectroscopy. The appearance of ferroelectric polarization coincides with the magnetic phase transition (∼67 K), which indicates that the ferroelectricity is driven by magnetism, and this is further confirmed by its strong magnetoelectric (ME) effect. We proposed the origin of the ferroelectricity is associated with the combination of Ni(2+)/Mn(4+) charge ordering and the ↑↑↓↓ spin ordering. When compared with other known magnetic multiferroics, Y2NiMnO6 displays several attractive multiferroic properties, including high polarization (∼145 μC/m(2)), a high multiferroic transition temperature (∼67 K), and strong ME coupling (∼21%).

Double perovskite Y2NiMnO6 nanowires: high temperature ferromagnetic–ferroelectric multiferroic

“…The representative high resolution TEM (HRTEM) micrograph of the NW, as shown in Figure 1(c), demonstrates the polycrystalline nature of the NW with dissimilar orientation of the different crystallographic planes having different lattice spacing. 6,13 Figure 1 (f)-(j) represent the energy filtered TEM (EFTEM) micrographs of a single Y 2 NiMnO 6 NW, where the colour mapping of different elements present in Y 2 NiMnO 6 NW shows an uniform distribution in the body of the NW, which again confirm the successful synthesis of the NWs. The selective area electron diffraction (SAED) pattern taken from the area covered under the HRTEM study also clarifies the polycrystalline nature of the NWs (see Figure 1(d)).…”

“…The lattice spacing between the (012) and (112) crystalline planes has been measured as 0.31 and 0.26 nm, respectively. In the as prepared NWs the Y3d 5/2 and Y3d 3/2 doublet peaks appears at 156.5 and 158.5 eV, respectively, which indicate the +3 oxidation state of Y in Y 2 NiMnO 6 14 as shown in Figure 2(a). Furthermore, the x-ray diffraction (XRD) has also been conducted to probe the crystallographic nature of the NWs.…”

“…[5][6][7] Generally, multiferroicity has been found to exist in perovskites at low temperature, where the polarization values are low too. 1-3 However, there are few multiferroic materials having coexistence of ferromagnetic and ferroelectric properties in the same phase.…”

Single Crystal Growth of Multiferroic Double Perovskites: Yb2CoMnO6 and Lu2CoMnO6

“…Strong interplay between the electric and magnetic order parameters in multiferroics provides opportunities for novel device applications, such as magnetoelectric data storage and sensors [5][6][7][8][9][10]. In particular, in type-II multiferroics, ferroelectricity originates from the lattice relaxation via exchange strictions in a particular spin order with broken spatial inversion symmetry, which naturally leads to strong controllability of the dielectric properties via external magnetic fields [11][12][13].…”

Dielectric characterization of multiferroic magnetoelectric double-perovskite Y(Ni0.5Mn0.5)O3 thin films

“…The YNMO perovskite has been synthesized and their ferromagnetic ordering reported 36,37 . Thin films of YNMO have been also obtained with discrepant structural and magnetic results [38][39][40][41] , and it has been discretely referred as a ferroelectric-ferromagnetic perovskite in some studies 42,43 , although, no direct experimental confirmation of its ferroelectric nature has been yet reported in the literature 44 .…”