时间空间反演对称同时破缺模型材料的发现

A Ferrotoroidic Candidate with Well-Separated Spin Chains

J. Zhang, X. C. Wang, L. Zhou, G. X. Liu, D. T. Adroja, I. Da Silva, F. Demmel, D. Khalyavin, J. Sannigrahi, H. S. Nair, L. Duan, J. F. Zhao, Z. Deng, R. Z. Yu, X. Shen, R. C. Yu, H. Zhao, J. M. Zhao, Y. W. Long, Z. W. Hu, H. J. Lin, T. S. Chan, C. T. Chen, W. Wu, C. Q. Jin

Adv. Mater. 34, 2106728 (2022)

Research Highlight: 中科院(CAS), 中科院物理所(IOP), 中国材料研究学会材料科学与工程

   The search of novel quasi one-dimensional (1D) materials is one of the important aspects in the field of material science. Toroidal moment, the order parameter of ferrotoroidic order, can be generated by a head-to-tail configuration of magnetic moment. It has been theoretically proposed that one-dimensional (1D) dimerized and antiferromagnetic-like spin chain hosts ferrotoroidicity and has the toroidal moment composed of only two antiparallel spins. Here, we report a ferrotoroidic candidate of Ba6Cr2S10 with such a theoretical model of spin chain. The structure consists of unique dimerized face-sharing CrS6 octahedral chains along the c axis. An antiferromagnetic-like ordering at ~10 K breaks both space- and time-reversal symmetries and the magnetic point group of mm'2' allows three ferroic orders in Ba6Cr2S10: (anti)ferromagnetic, ferroelectric and ferrotoroidic orders. Our investigation reveals that Ba6Cr2S10 is a rare ferrotoroidic candidate with quasi 1D spin chain, which can be considered as a starting point for the further exploration of the physics and applications of ferrotoroidicity.