Effect of piezomagnetism on coupling of electric and magnetic domain walls in hexagonal manganites

Abstract

The profiles of antiferromagnetic domain walls in hexagonal manganites RMnO 3 are obtained numerically depending on anisotropy and internal strain due to the lattice distortion at the ferroelectric domain walls. It is found that the piezomagnetism can lower the free energy of the system thus it favors the coupling between electric and magnetic domain walls. Due to the piezomagnetic effect, the clamped antiferromagnetic domain walls with spin orientation angle φ changing from 0 to π have different profiles comparing with those of φ changing from 0 to-π, and the former is energetically more favorable than the latter when the internal strain is tensile at the FEL domain walls while it is the contrary for compressive strain. Moreover, the strongest coupling between the FEL domain walls and the favorable AFM domain walls can be achieved at an optimized internal strain. © EDP Sciences, Societa Italiana di Fisica, Springer-Verlag 2010.