Role of local structural distortion in driving ferroelectricity in GdCrO3

Temperature-dependent synchrotron x-ray diffraction and extended x-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) studies were performed to understand the role of structural characteristics in driving the magnetoelectric multiferroic properties of GdCrO3. The results suggest that the distortion in the structure appears to be associated with the off-center displacement of Gd atoms together with octahedral rotations via displacement of the oxygen ions in GdCrO3. Further, a comparative EXAFS study of GdCrO3 with a similar system, YCrO3, suggests that the oxygen environment of Gd in GdCrO3 is different from that of Y in YCrO3, which results in an orthorhombic Pna2(1) structure in GdCrO3 in contrast to the monoclinic P2(1) structure in YCrO3.