Temperature dependences of the electric polarization and wave number of incommensurate structures in multiferroics

Abstract

It is shown that the electric polarization and wave number of incommensurate modulations, proportional to each other, increase according to the Landau law in spin multiferroic cycloids near the Néel temperature. In this case, the constant magnetization component (including the one for a conical spiral) is oriented perpendicular to the spin incommensurability wave vector. A similar temperature behavior should manifest itself for spin helicoids, the axes of which are oriented parallel to the polarization vector but their spin rotation planes are oriented perpendicular to the antiferromagnetic order plane. When the directions of axes of the magnetization helicoid and polarization vector coincide, the latter is quadratic with respect to magnetization and linearly depends on temperature, whereas the incommensurate-modulation wave number barely depends on temperature. Structural distortions of unit cells for multiferroics of different types determine their axial behavior.