Anti-symmetric Compton scattering in LiNiPO ₄: Towards a direct probe of the magneto-electric multipole moment

Magnetoelectric multipoles, which break both space-inversion and time-reversal symmetries, play an important role in the magnetoelectric response of a material. Motivated by uncovering the underlying fundamental physics of the magnetoelectric multipoles and the possible technological applications of magnetoelectric materials, understanding as well as detecting such magnetoelectric multipoles has become an active area of research in condensed matter physics. Here we employ the well-established Compton scattering effect as a possible probe for the magnetoelectric toroidal moments in LiNiPO ₄.

We employ combined theoretical and experimental techniques to compute as well as detect the antisymmetric Compton profile in LiNiPO ₄. For the theoretical investigation we use density functional theory to compute the anti-symmetric part of the Compton profile for the magnetic and structural ground state of LiNiPO ₄. For the experimental verification, we measure the Compton signals for a single magnetoelectric domain sample of LiNiPO ₄, and then again for the same sample with its magnetoelectric domain reversed. We then take the difference between these two measured signals to extract the antisymmetric Compton profile in LiNiPO ₄.

Our theoretical calculations indicate an antisymmetric Compton profile in the direction of the t _y toroidal moment in momentum space, with the computed antisymmetric profile around four orders of magnitude smaller than the total profile. The difference signal that we measure is consistent with the computed profile, but of the same order of magnitude as the statistical errors and systematic uncertainties of the experiment.

While the weak difference signal in the measurements prevents an unambiguous determination of the antisymmetric Compton profile in LiNiPO ₄, our results motivate  further theoretical work to understand the factors that influence the size of the antisymmetric Compton profile, and to identify materials exhibiting larger effects.