Evidence of electro-active excitation of the spin cycloid in TbMnO3

Terahertz electromagnetic excitations in the multiferroic TbMnO3 at the field-induced magnetic transition are investigated for different orientations of the magnetic cycloid. In addition to the electromagnon along the a-axis, the detailed polarization analysis of the experimental spectra suggests the existence of an electro-active excitation for ac electric fields along the crystallographic c-axis. This excitation is possibly the electro-active eigenmode of the spin cycloid in TbMnO3, which has been predicted within the inverse Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya mechanism of magnetoelectric coupling.