Origin of the large polarization in multiferroic YMnO3 thin films revealed by soft- and hard-X-ray diffraction

Phys Rev Lett. 2012 Jan 27;108(4):047203. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.047203. Epub 2012 Jan 24.

Abstract

We investigated the magnetic structure of an orthorhombic YMnO(3) thin film by resonant soft x-ray and hard x-ray diffraction. We observed a temperature-dependent incommensurate magnetic reflection below 45 K and a commensurate lattice-distortion reflection below 35 K. These results demonstrate that the ground state is composed of coexisting E-type and cycloidal states. Their different ordering temperatures clarify the origin of the large polarization to be caused by the E-type antiferromagnetic states in the orthorhombic YMnO(3) thin film.