  MnWO4 has attracted attention because of its ferroelectric property induced
by frustrated helical spin order. Strong spin-lattice interaction is necessary
to explain ferroelectricity associated with this type of magnetic order.We have
conducted thermal expansion measurements along the a, b, c axes revealing the
existence of strong anisotropic lattice anomalies at T1=7.8 K, the temperature
of the magnetic lock-in transition into a commensurate low-temperature
(reentrant paraelectric) phase. The effect of hydrostatic pressure up to 1.8
GPa on the FE phase is investigated by measuring the dielectric constant and
the FE polarization. The low- temperature commensurate and paraelectric phase
is stabilized and the stability range of the ferroelectric phase is diminished
under pressure.
