title: Polarization enhancement and ferroelectric switching enabled by interacting magnetic structures in DyMnO₃ thin films.
abstract: The mutual controls of ferroelectricity and magnetism are stepping towards practical applications proposed for quite a few promising devices in which multiferroic thin films are involved. Although ferroelectricity stemming from specific spiral spin ordering has been reported in highly distorted bulk perovskite manganites, the existence of magnetically induced ferroelectricity in the corresponding thin films remains an unresolved issue, which unfortunately halts this step. In this work, we report magnetically induced electric polarization and its remarkable response to magnetic field (an enhancement of ~800% upon a field of 2 Tesla at 2 K) in DyMnO₃ thin films grown on Nb-SrTiO₃ substrates. Accompanying with the large polarization enhancement, the ferroelectric coercivity corresponding to the magnetic chirality switching field is significantly increased. A picture based on coupled multicomponent magnetic structures is proposed to understand these features. Moreover, different magnetic anisotropy related to strain-suppressed GdFeO₃-type distortion and Jahn-Teller effect is identified in the films.
authors.affiliation: School of Physics & Wuhan National High Magnetic Field Center, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China.
authors.forename: Chengliang
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.forename: Shuai
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Dong
authors.forename: Zhengcai
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Xia
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.forename: Zhibo
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.forename: Haowen
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Zhaoming
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Tian
authors.forename: Songliu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yuan
authors.forename: Tao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Junming
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liu