Skyrmion-like structures induced by copper doping in multiferroic CaCuxMn7-xO12

DOI

Multiferroic CaMn7O12 possesses giant magnetically induced ferroelectricity at relatively high temperatures - key properties for technological application. X-ray and neutron diffraction studies have shown that below 90 K a helical magnetic structure is strongly coupled to a structural modulation, resulting in an unprecedented ¿magneto-orbital helix¿ giving rise to ferroelectricity. In recent x-ray diffraction measurements on the doped compound CaCu0.15Mn6.85O12, we observed a complex 4 k structural modulation that bears an intriguing resemblance to the magnetic skyrmion. Given the strong coupling between structure and magnetism in undoped CaMn7O12, we predict a multi-k magnetic structure in CaCu0.15Mn6.85O12. The proposed experiment will search for these magnetic propagation vectors, and if successful, will uncover a unique example of a magneto-orbital skyrmion.

Identifier
DOI https://doi.org/10.5286/ISIS.E.24091202
Metadata Access https://icatisis.esc.rl.ac.uk/oaipmh/request?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=oai_datacite&identifier=oai:icatisis.esc.rl.ac.uk:inv/24091202
Provenance
Creator Professor Paolo Radaelli; Dr Laurent Chapon; Dr Roger Johnson; Ms Natasha Perks
Publisher ISIS Neutron and Muon Source
Publication Year 2016
Rights CC-BY Attribution 4.0 International; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
OpenAccess true
Contact isisdata(at)stfc.ac.uk
Representation
Resource Type Dataset
Discipline Photon- and Neutron Geosciences
Temporal Coverage Begin 2013-07-27T09:26:56Z
Temporal Coverage End 2014-08-10T12:48:05Z