Multiferroics and Beyond: Electric Properties of Different Magnetic Textures
D. I. Khomskiǐ
Abstract
This article presents a survey of many nontrivial effects connected with the coupling of electric and magnetic degrees of freedom in solids—the field initiated by I.E. Dzyaloshinskii in 1959. I briefly consider the main physics of multiferroic materials, and concentrate on different effects “beyond multiferroics”, based on the same physical mechanisms which operate in multiferroics. In particular they lead to nontrivial electric properties of different magnetic textures—such as the appearance of dipoles on magnetic monopoles in spin ice, dipoles on some domain walls in the usual ferromagnets, on skyrmions etc. The inverse effect, the appearance of magnetic monopoles on electric charges in magnetoelectrics, is also discusses. This nontrivial electric activity of different magnetic textures has manifestations in many experimental properties of these materials, and it can potentially lead to novel applications.