Fyzikální ústav Akademie věd ČR

Abstract: Simultaneous breaking of time-reversal and spatial inversion symmetries can lead to the emergence of new optical phenomena in multiferroics. As the most peculiar example, we have recently found that multiferroics can exhibit strong directional dichroism [1,2], i.e. they absorb counter-propagating light beams with different strength, where the absorbing and transparent directions of propagation can be reversed by the application of either magnetic or electric fields.