IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v607y2022i7917d10.1038_s41586-022-04851-6.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Topologically protected magnetoelectric switching in a multiferroic

Author

Listed:
  • Louis Ponet

    (Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia
    Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa
    École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne)

  • S. Artyukhin

    (Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia)

  • Th. Kain

    (Vienna University of Technology)

  • J. Wettstein

    (Vienna University of Technology)

  • Anna Pimenov

    (Vienna University of Technology)

  • A. Shuvaev

    (Vienna University of Technology)

  • X. Wang

    (Beijing Institute of Technology
    Rutgers Center for Emergent Materials and Department of Physics and Astronomy)

  • S.-W. Cheong

    (Rutgers Center for Emergent Materials and Department of Physics and Astronomy)

  • Maxim Mostovoy

    (University of Groningen)

  • Andrei Pimenov

    (Vienna University of Technology)

Abstract

Electric control of magnetism and magnetic control of ferroelectricity can improve the energy efficiency of magnetic memory and data-processing devices1. However, the necessary magnetoelectric switching is hard to achieve, and requires more than just a coupling between the spin and the charge degrees of freedom2–5. Here we show that an application and subsequent removal of a magnetic field reverses the electric polarization of the multiferroic GdMn2O5, thus requiring two cycles to bring the system back to the original configuration. During this unusual hysteresis loop, four states with different magnetic configurations are visited by the system, with one half of all spins undergoing unidirectional full-circle rotation in increments of about 90 degrees. Therefore, GdMn2O5 acts as a magnetic crankshaft that converts the back-and-forth variations of the magnetic field into a circular spin motion. This peculiar four-state magnetoelectric switching emerges as a topologically protected boundary between different two-state switching regimes. Our findings establish a paradigm of topologically protected switching phenomena in ferroic materials.

Suggested Citation

  • Louis Ponet & S. Artyukhin & Th. Kain & J. Wettstein & Anna Pimenov & A. Shuvaev & X. Wang & S.-W. Cheong & Maxim Mostovoy & Andrei Pimenov, 2022. "Topologically protected magnetoelectric switching in a multiferroic," Nature, Nature, vol. 607(7917), pages 81-85, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:607:y:2022:i:7917:d:10.1038_s41586-022-04851-6
    DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-04851-6
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04851-6
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41586-022-04851-6?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Yangliu Wu & Zhaozhuo Zeng & Haipeng Lu & Xiaocang Han & Chendi Yang & Nanshu Liu & Xiaoxu Zhao & Liang Qiao & Wei Ji & Renchao Che & Longjiang Deng & Peng Yan & Bo Peng, 2024. "Coexistence of ferroelectricity and antiferroelectricity in 2D van der Waals multiferroic," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-9, December.
    2. Nan Zhang & Wencong Sun & Yao Zhang & Huan-Huan Jiang & Ren-Gen Xiong & Shuai Dong & Han-Yue Zhang, 2023. "Organic radical ferroelectric crystals with martensitic phase transition," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-9, December.
    3. Makiko Ogino & Yoshihiro Okamura & Kosuke Fujiwara & Takahiro Morimoto & Naoto Nagaosa & Yoshio Kaneko & Yoshinori Tokura & Youtarou Takahashi, 2024. "Terahertz photon to dc current conversion via magnetic excitations of multiferroics," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-7, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:607:y:2022:i:7917:d:10.1038_s41586-022-04851-6. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.