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Updated: Aug 24, 2026

Measuring Magnetically-Tuned Ferroelectric Polarization in Liquid Crystals
Published on: August 15, 2018
Commensurate-incommensurate magnetic phase transition in magnetoelectric single crystal LiNiPO(4)
D Vaknin1, J L Zarestky, J-P Rivera
1Department of Physics and Astronomy, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011, USA.
Abstract:
Neutron scattering studies of single crystal LiNiPO4 reveal a spontaneous first-order commensurate-incommensurate magnetic phase transition. Short- and long-range incommensurate phases are intermediate between the high temperature paramagnetic and the low temperature antiferromagnetic phases. The modulated structure has a predominant antiferromagnetic component, giving rise to satellite peaks in the vicinity of the fundamental antiferromagnetic Bragg reflection, and a ferromagnetic component, giving rise to peaks at small momentum transfers around the origin at (0,+/-Q,0). The wavelength of the modulated magnetic structure varies continuously with temperature. It is argued that the incommensurate short- and long-range phases are due to spin-dimensionality crossover from a continuous to the discrete Ising state.
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