Magnetic ordering in new polar magnetoelectric ErCrWO₆

Much effort has been expended in the last two decades in exploring magnetoelectrics and multiferroics due to their novel functionality for potential application in magnetoelectric RAM or gate devices. To date, many of the most studied magnetoelectrics suffer from weak coupling between ferroic orders, even those with strong—even above room temperature—orderings such as BiFeO₃. One appealing avenue toward higher magnetoelectric coupling is in the emerging family of polar magnets in which the ferroelectric distortion and magnetic ordering are centered on the same ion. Here we discuss our recent results on the new polar magnetoelectric compound ErCrWO₆, which crystallizes in the noncentrosymmetric space group Pna2₁. Neutron diffraction experiments have been performed on the WAND2 diffractometer at the High Flux Isotope Reactor at Oak Ridge National Laboratory revealing commensurate antiferromagnetic order canted slightly in the c-direction below a transition temperature of T_N ~ 22 K. We report on the magnetic interactions as studied via inelastic neutron scattering as well as dielectric and pyroelectric properties at measured at low temperature.