The microscopic mechanisms of the magnetoelectric effect in rare-earth phosphates

Abstract

In crystalline rare-earth compounds, the magnetoelectric (ME) effect is predominantly decided by single-ion mechanisms. Different procedures will be presented to specify the operator that has to be added to the Hamiltonian. Calculations in mean-field approximation lead to very satisfactory agreement in the temperature dependence of the main elements of the ME tensor with those measured on TbPO₄, a substance showing two successive phase transitions. Furtheron, the influence of different types of crystallographic domains on the measurable ME effect is discussed.

Key Words:

• magnetoelectric effect
• phase transitions
• domain effects