Magnetic influence on frequency of soft-phonon mode in incipient ferroelectric EuTiO3

The dielectric constant of the incipient ferroelectric EuTiO3 exhibits a sharp decrease at about 5.5 K, at which temperature antiferromagnetic ordering of the Eu spins simultaneously appears, indicating coupling between the magnetism and dielectric properties. This may be attributed to the modification of the soft-phonon mode T-1mu, which is the main contribution to the large dielectric constant, by the Eu spins (7mu(B) per Eu). By adding the coupling term between the magnetic and electrical subsystems as -gSigma(l)Sigma(<i, j>)q(l)(2)(S) over right arrow (i).(S) over right arrow (j) we show that the variation of the frequency of soft-phonon mode depends on the spin correlation between the nearest-neighbors Eu spins and is substantially changed under a magnetic field. (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics.