Modified Heisenberg model for the zig-zag structure in multiferroic RMn₂O₅

Abstract

The class of RMn2O5 (R = Ho, Tb, Y, Eu) compounds offers multiferroic properties where the refined magnetic zig-zag order breaks the inversion symmetry. Varying the temperature, the system undergoes a magnetic and a subsequent ferroelectric phase transition where the ferroelectricity is magnetically induced. We propose a modified anisotropic Heisenberg model that can be used as a tractable analytical model studying the properties of those antiferromagnetic zig-zag spin chains. Based on a finite temperature Green's function method, it is shown that the polarization is induced solely by different exchange couplings of the two different Mn4+ and Mn3+ magnetic ions. We calculate the excitation energy of the spin system for finite temperatures, which for its part determines the temperature dependent magnetization and polarization. The ferroelectric phase transition is manifested as a kink in the excitation energy. The variation of the polarization by an external magnetic field depends strongly on the direction of that field. Whereas, the polarization in b-direction increases with an external magnetic field as well in b-direction it can be switched for strong fields in a-direction. The results based on that modified Heisenberg model are in qualitative agreement with experimental data.