Ferroelectricity Driven by Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya Interaction in an Anisotropic Heisenberg Antiferromagnetic Chain

We have made a theoretical study on the ferroelectricity and ferromagnetism in an antiferromagnetic Heisenberg chain with a Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction which may induce ferroelectricity in some low-dimensional magnetic materials. Based on the transfer-matrix method, we obtain the analytical results of the average magnetization, polarization and magnetic susceptibility. And these physical quantities as functions of temperature and applied field are discussed respectively under various conditions. We find that the temperature dependence of the magnetic susceptibility exhibits different responses for the external field applied along the chain and perpendicular to the chain, demonstrating the important role of anisotropy.