### Session W9: Focus Session: Complex Bulk Oxides: Multiferroics

11:15 AM–2:15 PM, Thursday, March 1, 2012
Room: 209

Chair: Pat Woodward, Ohio State University

Abstract ID: BAPS.2012.MAR.W9.5

### Abstract: W9.00005 : Multiferroic behavior in trimerized Mott insulators

12:27 PM–12:39 PM

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#### Authors:

Yoshitomo Kamiya
(Theoretical Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory)

Cristian Batista
(Theoretical Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory)

We demonstrate multiferroic behavior in trimerized Mott insulators through the interplay between spins and electric dipole moments resulting from electronic charge fluctuations in frustrated units [L. N. Bulaevskii, C. D. Batista, M. V. Mostovoy, and D. I. Khomskii, Phys. Rev. B 78, 024402 (2008)]. The model consists of stacked triangular layers of trimers with small inter-trimer exchange interactions $J'$ and $J''$. We construct a phase diagram using a semi-classical approach. Ferroelectric states coexist with ferro- or antiferromagnetic orderings depending on the value of the magnetic field $H$ and the sign of the inter-layer exchange $J''$. The electric polarization undergoes abrupt changes as a function of $H$.

To cite this abstract, use the following reference: http://meetings.aps.org/link/BAPS.2012.MAR.W9.5