Antiferromagnetic iron-based magnetoelectric compounds

The Landau free energy of a compound that benefits from a linear coupling of an electric field and a magnetic field includes a product of the two fields, one polar and time even and one axial and time odd. Evidently, the coefficient of the product of fields is unchanged by a simultaneous change in the directions of space and time, a symmetry operation labeled anti-inversion. Invariance with respect to anti-inversion is the defining symmetry of the linear magnetoelectric (ME) effect included in 58 of 122 magnetic crystal classes, 19 of which prohibit higher-order (nonlinear) contributions to the free energy. In ME compounds, expectation values of some atomic magnetic tensors are invariant with respect to anti-inversion. An invariance shared by the Dirac monopole (an element of charge allowed in Maxwell's equations that has not been observed) and a Zel'dovich anapole, is also known as a Dirac dipole. From the science of materials perspective, it has been established that Dirac multipoles contribute to the diffraction of x rays and neutrons. We identify Dirac monopoles in bulk magnetic properties of iron tellurate (Fe2TeO6) and a spin ladder (SrFe2S2O). They are visible in the diffraction of light using an iron electric dipole-magnetic dipole absorption event. Both cited compounds present a simple antiferromagnetic configuration of axial dipoles, and their different magnetic crystal classes allow a linear ME effect. However, the Kerr effect is symmetry allowed in the spin ladder and forbidden in iron tellurate. Anapoles are forbidden in iron tellurate and allowed in the spin ladder compound, a difference evident in diffraction patterns fully informed by symmetry. More generally, we identify a raft of Dirac multipoles, and axial multipoles beyond dipoles, visible in future experiments using standard techniques with beams of neutrons or x rays tuned in energy to an iron atomic resonance. ME invariance imposes a phase relationship between nuclear (charge) and magnetic contributions to neutron (x-ray) diffraction amplitudes. In consequence, intensities of Bragg spots in an x-ray pattern do not change when helicity in the primary beam is reversed. A like effect occurs in the magnetic diffraction of polarized neutrons.

Automated summary

The Landau free energy of compounds with a linear magnetoelectric (ME) effect includes a product of an electric field and a magnetic field. This effect is characterized by the invariance of the coefficient of the product of fields under anti-inversion symmetry operation. This symmetry is present in 58 of 122 magnetic crystal classes and prohibits nonlinear contributions to the free energy in 19 of these classes. By studying iron tellurate and a spin ladder compound, Dirac monopoles are identified in their bulk magnetic properties, with differences in their diffraction patterns due to symmetry restrictions.