Possible coexistence of Cycloidal Phases, Magnetic Field Reversal of Polarization and Memory Effect in Multiferroic \emph{R}$_{0.5}$Dy$_{0.5}$MnO$_3$ (\emph{R}=Eu and Gd)

Abstract

We report the occurrence of both \emph{ab} and \emph{bc} cycloidal ordering of Mn-spins at different temperatures and their possible coexistence at low temperatures in the polycrystalline mixed rare-earth compounds, \emph{R}$_{0.5}$Dy$_{0.5}$MnO$_3$ (\emph{R} = Eu and Gd), which exhibit extraordinary magnetoelectric properties. While the polarization of Gd$_{0.5}$Dy$_{0.5}$MnO$_3$ is comparable to TbMnO$_3$, the compound Eu$_{0.5}$Dy$_{0.5}$MnO$_3$ shows high value of polarization. However, both of them show giant magnetic tunability and exhibit large magnetocapacitance whose sign changes across the two cycloidal ordering temperatures. Intriguingly, the electric polarization can be reversed upon ramping up or ramping down the magnetic field, which has not been observed for any of the \emph{R}MnO$_3$ system. Most strikingly, these compounds show non-volatile ferroelectric memory effect even in the paraelectric and paramagnetic region (T$_C$ $\leq$ T $\leq$ 80 K). We attribute these remarkable properties to the coexistence of \emph{ab} and \emph{bc} cycloidal ordered phases.