Direct Evidence of Flexomagnetoelectric Effect Revealed by Single-Molecule Spectroscopy

Phys Rev Lett. 2015 Jul 10;115(2):027601. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.115.027601. Epub 2015 Jul 6.

Abstract

We report direct evidence of the electric field induced by a magnetization inhomogeneity in an iron garnet film. This inhomogeneity was created by the nonuniform magnetic fields generated at domain boundaries of a type-I superconductor in the intermediate state. At liquid helium temperatures, Stark shifts of sharp single-molecule zero-phonon lines were used to probe the local electric fields generated by this flexomagnetoelectric effect. The measured electric fields are in accordance with theoretical estimations.