Magnetoelectric response of the spin-Peierls compound CuGeO3

The effect of an electric field on the magnetic susceptibility in a pure CuGeO3 single crystal at microwave frequencies is investigated. A quadratic effect of the electric field on the magnetic susceptibility, which increases with decreasing temperature, is observed in the spin-Peierls state at temperatures below 5 K. The observed effect is tentatively attributed to residual magnetism, due to distortions of the regular dimerized structure at domain walls with different values of the dimerization phase, and to the effect of the electric field on the interchain exchange interaction. (C) 1996 American Institute of Physics.