title: Control of the magnetoelectric domain-wall stability by a magnetic field in a multiferroic MnWO4.
abstract: The relation between the orientation of the magnetic field and the flopped ferroelectric polarization has been investigated for multiferroic MnWO4. The ferroelectric single-domain state is retained across the polarization flop process when the direction of the applied magnetic field slightly deviates from the b axis within the ab plane. Furthermore, the electric polarization in the high-field P parallela phase is reversed when the P parallelb-to-P parallela transition takes place while decreasing and increasing the magnetic fields oppositely canted from the b axis. These results indicate that the symmetry breaking induced by a canted magnetic field determines the direction of the polarization flop, which corresponds to the direction of the vector spin chirality. The stability of the magnetoelectric domain walls in a canted magnetic field play a key role in the directional control of the electric polarization flop phenomenon.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Multidisciplinary Research for Advanced Materials, Tohoku University, Sendai 980-8577, Japan.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Taniguchi
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Abe
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Umetsu
authors.forename: H Aruga
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: Katori
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Arima