Investigation of magnetic structure in the polar magnetic oxides LuMWO6 (M = Fe, Cr)

Magnetoelectric multiferroics, materials in which magnetic and electric orders coexist and coupled to each other, have drawn tremendous interest in condensed matter physics due to their fundamental physics and promising applications in future storage devices. Along this line, we have discovered a new magnetoelectric multiferroic material LuFeWO6. However, we did not observe multiferroicity in the isostructural compound LuCrWO6. Both the compounds crystallize in polar orthorhombic structure and exhibit long-range magnetic ordering of Fe3+- and Cr3+ ions at TN = 11.8 K and 19.2 K, respectively. LuFeWO6 shows a change in electric polarization at TN demonstrating the magnetoelectric multiferroicity. Therefore, we need knowledge of the magnetic structure to understand the origin of multiferroicity in LuFeWO6 and the absence of the same in LuCrWO6.