Order Parameters and Phase Diagram of Multiferroic RMn2O5

The generic magnetic phase diagram of multiferroic RMn2O5 (with R = Y, Ho, Tb, Er, Tm), which allows different sequences of ordered magnetic structures for different R’s and different control parameters, is described using order parameters which explicitly incorporate the magnetic symmetry. A phenomenological magnetoelectric coupling is used to explain why some of these magnetic phases are also ferroelectric. Several new experiments, which can test this theory, are proposed.