Observation of anomalous phonons in orthorhombic rare-earth manganites

Gao, P.; Chen, H. Y.; Tyson, T. A.; Liu, Z. X.; Bai, J. M.; Wang, L. P.; Choi, Y. J.; Cheong, S. -W.
2010
APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS
DOI
10.1063/1.3533022
We observe the appearance of a phonon near the lock-in temperature in orthorhombic REMnO3 (RE denotes rare earth) (RE: Lu and Ho) and anomalous phonon hardening in orthorhombic LuMnO3. The anomalous phonon occurs at the onset of spontaneous polarization. No such changes were found in incommensurate orthorhombic DyMnO3. These observations directly reveal different electric polarization mechanisms in the E-type and incommensurate-type orthorhombic REMnO3. (C) 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3533022]