Eur. Phys. J. B 71, 345-348 (2009)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2009-00208-2

First-principles theory of magnetically induced ferroelectricity in TbMnO₃

Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ, 08854, USA

Corresponding author: ^a andreim@physics.rutgers.edu

Received: 27 February 2009
Revised: 18 May 2009
Published online: 19 June 2009

Abstract

We study the polarization induced via spin-orbit interaction by a magnetic cycloidal order in orthorhombic TbMnO₃ using first-principle methods. The case of magnetic spiral lying in the b-c plane is analyzed, in which the pure electronic contribution to the polarization is shown to be small. We focus our attention on the lattice-mediated contribution, and study it's dependence on the Coulomb interaction parameter U in the LDA+U method and on the wave-vector of the spin spiral. The role of the spin-orbit interaction on different sites is also analyzed.