This article is cited in 6 papers

Magnetism

Exchange symmetry in description of magnetoelectrics

V. P. Sakhnenko, N. V. Ter-Oganessian

Research Institute of Physics, Southern Federal University

Abstract: Neutron diffraction studies of many magnetoelectrics and corresponding symmetry analysis indicate that the description of their magnetic structures requires of invoking two or more order parameters, so that the temperature proximity of their “condensation” has to be postulated when constructing a consistent thermodynamic theory. In this work, MnWO$_4$, CuO, and CuCl$_2$ magnetoelectrics are analyzed from the standpoint of symmetry of the exchange Hamiltonian. The magnetically ordering states observed in them are shown to be induced by one irreducible representation of the symmetry group of the exchange Hamiltonian. This fact provides the proximity of corresponding instabilities in the thermodynamic path and some features of magnetoelectrics.

Received: 19.07.2011

 English version: Physics of the Solid State, 2012, 54:2, 311–315

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