YCrO3 which has a monoclinic structure, shows weak ferromagnetism below 140 K
(TN) and a ferroelectric transition at 473 K accompanied by hysteresis. We have
determined the structure and energetics of YCrO3 with ferromagnetic and
antiferromagnetic ordering by means of first-principles density functional
theory calculations, based on pseudopotentials and a plane wave basis. The
non-centrosymmetric monoclinic structure is found to be lower in energy than
the orthorhombic structure, supporting the biferroic nature of YCrO3.Comment: 16 pages including figure