Electronic charge transfer driven by spin cycloidal structure

Muon spin rotation and resonant soft x-ray scattering experiments on prototype multiferroics $R{\mathrm{Mn}}_2{\mathrm{O}}_5$ ($R$ = Y, Sm) are used to demonstrate that the local electric displacements are driven by the spin-current (SC) mechanism. Small local electric displacements were evaluated by observing spin polarization at ligand O ions, for which implanted muons served as an extremely sensitive probe. Our results for ${\mathrm{YMn}}_2{\mathrm{O}}_5$ provide evidence that the spin polarization of O ions forming a spin cycloid chain with Mn spins increases in proportion to the vector spin chirality (${\mathbf{S}}_i\times {\mathbf{S}}_j$) of the Mn ions. This relationship strongly indicates that the charge transfer between O and Mn ions is driven by the SC mechanism, which leads to the ferroelectricity accompanying O spin polarization.