Anapole moment and spin-electric interactions in rare-earth nanoclusters

• Published in: Europhysics letters Vol. 87; no. 6; pp. 67004 - 67008
• Main Authors: Popov, A. I, Plokhov, D. I, Zvezdin, A. K
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: IOP Publishing 01.09.2009; EDP Sciences
• Subjects: 36.40.-c; 75.80.+q
• ISSN: 0295-5075; 1286-4854
• DOI: 10.1209/0295-5075/87/67004

Spin-electric interactions and magnetoelectric properties of triangular rare-earth molecular nanoclusters are investigated by the example of Dy3. The effective spin-electric Hamiltonian is derived on the base of a developed quantum-mechanical model of the cluster spin structure. It is shown that a toroidal (anapole) moment is induced in such clusters with magnetic field exceeding some threshold value or with crossed electric and magnetic fields (or an electric current). Due to the considerable relaxation time of the state with non-zero toroidal moment, it is possible to observe the non-equilibrium quantum linear magnetoelectric effect.