Electromagnons: Electrically active spin excitations in multiferroics

In some multiferroics spin wave can be excited by electric component of elmg. radiation and such excitations activated by dynamic magnetoelectric coupling are called electromagnons. We will discuss mechanism of electromagnon activation in the THz spectra of three different compounds: In the multiferroic TbMnO$_{3}$, the ferroelectricity is induced by inverse Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction, but two electromagnons are activated by the magnetostriction. Second example is CaMn$_{7}$O$_{12}$, whose polarization is the highest among all spin-induced ferroelectrics. In this material we observed three electromagnons, whose frequencies correspond to maxima of magnon density of states, so they should correspond to magnons from Brillouin zone boundary. Finally we will demonstrate that electromagnons are not limited to spin-induced ferroelectrics. We have observed an electromagnon in nanograin ceramics of epsilon-Fe$_{2}$O$_{3}$. This material is below 490 K a pyroelectric ferrimagnet and the electromagnon activates in the THz spectra only below 110 K, when the magnetic structure becomes incommensurately modulated. We will show how by combining infrared, THz and inelastic neutron scattering experiments, the electromagnons can be discerned from magnons or phonons.