Direct transition from a disordered to a multiferroic phase on a triangular lattice

Phys Rev Lett. 2007 Jun 29;98(26):267205. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.98.267205. Epub 2007 Jun 29.

Abstract

We report the first direct transition from a paramagnetic and paraelectric phase to an incommensurate multiferroic in the triangular lattice antiferromagnet RbFe(MoO4)(2). Ferroelectricity is observed only when the magnetic structure has chirality and breaks inversion symmetry. A Landau expansion of symmetry-allowed terms in the free energy demonstrates that chiral magnetic order can give rise to a pseudoelectric field, whose temperature dependence agrees with experiment.