Electric field control of natural optical activity in a multiferroic helimagnet

Controlling the chiral degree of freedom in matter has long been an important issue for many fields of science. The spin-spiral order, which exhibits a strong magnetoelectric coupling, gives rise to chirality irrespective of the atomic arrangement of matter. Here, we report the resonantly enhanced n...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Vol. 372; no. 6541; pp. 496 - 500
Main Authors:	Masuda, Ryoji, Kaneko, Yoshio, Tokura, Yoshinori, Takahashi, Youtarou
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	United States The American Association for the Advancement of Science 30-04-2021
Subjects:	Chirality Copper oxides Coupling Electric fields Handedness Magnetic properties Multiferroic materials Optical activity Optical properties Stability
Online Access:	Get full text
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Summary:	Controlling the chiral degree of freedom in matter has long been an important issue for many fields of science. The spin-spiral order, which exhibits a strong magnetoelectric coupling, gives rise to chirality irrespective of the atomic arrangement of matter. Here, we report the resonantly enhanced natural optical activity on the electrically active magnetic excitation, that is, electromagnon, in multiferroic cupric oxide. The electric field control of the natural optical activity is demonstrated through magnetically induced chirality endowed with magnetoelectric coupling. These optical properties inherent to multiferroics may lead to optical devices based on the control of chirality.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23
ISSN:	0036-8075 1095-9203
DOI:	10.1126/science.aaz4312