Magnetodielectric effect in an organic-inorganic hybrid layered perovskite (CH3NH3)2MnCl4 with canted antiferromagnetism

Abstract

Herein, we report the magnetodielectric effect in a single crystal of (CH₃NH₃)₂MnCl₄, an organic–inorganic hybrid layered perovskite having a composition of A₂MX₄ (A = organic anion, M = metal divalent ion, X = halogen cation). Magnetic property measurements reveal that a magnetic phase transition to antiferromagnetism appears at 47 K and a spin-flop transition occurs at 3.5 T in the magnetization (M) curve. We observed a considerable maximum magnetodielectric (MD) effect of 0.4% at 8 K. Furthermore, it was found that the MD effect is proportional to M² in low magnetic fields and the MD effect starts to saturate at the spin-flop transition field. We proposed a magnetic structure model to explain the mechanism of the peculiar step-like MD effect induced by the spin reorientation.