Neutron diffraction of new polar magnetoelectric ErCrWO₆

Multiferroics are materials in which more than one ferroic orders coexist. These have been intensively studied over the past two decades on account of their novel physical properties and the potential for magnetoelectric device applications. These devices hinge on the ability to control one ferroic order (electric/magnetic) with the field of the opposite type (magnetic/electric); however, the coupling to date is not yet strong enough to enable their usage in commercial devices. One route to stronger coupling is in the polar magnets in which the ferroelectric distortion and magnetic ordering are centered on the same ion. Here we discuss our recent results on the new polar magnetoelectric compound ErCrWO₆, which crystallizes in the noncentrosymmetric space group Pna2₁. We report on the low temperature (below T_N ~ 22 K) magnetic structure as determined by neutron diffraction that reveal commensurate antiferromagnetic order canted slightly in the c-direction.