Electric dipoles via Cr3+(d3) ion off-center displacement in perovskite DyCrO3

We report on electric dipoles induced by magnetic ion $\mathrm{C}{\mathrm{r}}^{3+}(3{d}^{3})$ off-center displacement with potential strong magnetoelectric coupling in simple perovskite $\mathrm{DyCr}{\mathrm{O}}_{3}$ crystals. $\mathrm{DyCr}{\mathrm{O}}_{3}$ was found to show quantum paraelectric behavior and the existence of electrical dipoles, as revealed by the dielectric, Raman scattering, and x-ray absorption near-edge structure spectra experiments. The anomalous lattice volume decreasing rate at low temperatures might play an important role in the $\mathrm{C}{\mathrm{r}}^{3+}$ ion displacement induced polar instability in $\mathrm{DyCr}{\mathrm{O}}_{3}$ as predicted by previous theoretical calculations. Our results on $\mathrm{DyCr}{\mathrm{O}}_{3}$ provide important experimental evidence for non-${d}^{0}$ transition-metal ion displacement induced electric dipoles, and they may lead to the exploration of multiferroics in a wider range of materials, especially magnetic perovskites.