title: Electric field control of ferroelectric domain structures in MnWO4.
abstract: Competing interactions make the magnetic structure of MnWO4 highly frustrated, and only the AF2 phase of the three magnetically ordered phases (AF1, AF2, AF3) is ferroelectric. The high frustration may thus allow a possibility to tune the magnetic structure by means of an electric field via magnetoelectric coupling. By using the pyroelectric current method, we measure the remnant ferroelectric polarization in MnWO4 upon application of a poling electric field via two different roadmaps. It is demonstrated that an electric field as low as 10 kV cm(-1) is sufficient to enhance the stability of a ferroelectric AF2 phase at the expense of a non-ferroelectric AF1 phase. This work suggests that electric field induced electrostatic energy, although small due to weak magnetically induced electric polarization, may effectively tune ferroelectric domain structures, and thus the magnetic structure of highly frustrated multiferroic materials.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, People's Republic of China. School of Mathematics and Physics, Anhui Polytechnic University, Wuhu 241000, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: H W
authors.initials: HW
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: X
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: M F
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Z B
authors.initials: ZB
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.forename: X H
authors.initials: XH
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Liu