NBIA Cond-mat Seminar

Magnetoelectric coupling in Mott insulators

Maxim Mostovoy, University of Groningen, Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials

Multiferroic materials with their coexisting orders of electric and magnetic dipoles may find many technological applications, such as magnetoelectric random access memory, that excel by their low power consumption. Recent progress in the field of multiferroics led to discovery of a large number of new multiferroic materials showing spectacular effects, i.e. the magnetically-induced rotation of electric polarization, the giant increase of dielectric constant in an applied magnetic field and the excitation of spin waves by the electric field of a light wave.

I will discuss interactions between spin and charge degrees of freedom in Mott insulators giving rise to these effects. In particular, I will talk about the electric polarization induced by spin dynamics, which can be used to control magnetic textures with an applied voltage. I will also discuss the interplay between ferroelectricity and magnetism at topological defects, such as domain walls and vortices.

Refreshments after the talk!