2012/04/17 by S. M. Griffin, M. Lilienblum, K. Delaney +3 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #cond-mat.mtrl-sci #astro-ph.CO #hep-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevx.2.041022
published as Physical Review X 2, 041022 (2012)
arxiv created 2012/04/17 · arxiv updated 2021/03/09
We show that the improper ferroelectric phase transition in the multiferroic hexagonal manganites displays the same symmetry-breaking characteristics as those proposed in early-universe theories. We present an analysis of the Kibble-Zurek theory of topological defect formation applied to the hexagonal manganites, discuss the conditions determining the range of cooling rates in which Kibble-Zurek behavior is expected, and show that recent literature data are consistent with our predictions. We explore experimentally for the first time to our knowledge the cross-over out of the Kibble-Zurek regime and find a surprising "anti-Kibble-Zurek" behavior.