Strain is a leading candidate for controlling magnetoelectric coupling in multiferroics. Here, we use x-ray diffraction to study the coupling between magnetic order and structural distortion in epitaxial films of the orthorhombic (o-) perovskite LuMnO3. An antiferromagnetic spin canting in the E-type magnetic structure is shown to be related to the ferroelectrically induced structural distortion and to a change in the magnetic propagation vector. By comparing films of different orientations and thicknesses, these quantities are found to be controlled by b-axis strain. It is shown that compressive strain destabilizes the commensurate E-type structure and reduces its accompanying ferroelectric distortion.
@article{arxiv.1402.1057,
title = {Multiferroic properties of o-LuMnO$_3$ controlled by b-axis strain},
author = {Y. W. Windsor and S. W. Huang and Y. Hu and L. Rettig and A. Alberca and K. Shimamoto and V. Scagnoli and T. Lippert and C. W. Schneider and U. Staub},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1402.1057},
year = {2015}
}