No Arabic abstract
Using x-ray resonant magnetic scattering and x-ray magnetic circular dichroism, techniques that are element specific, we have elucidated the role of Ho3+ in multiferroic HoMnO3. In zero field, Ho3+ orders antiferromagnetically with moments aligned along the hexagonal c direction below 40 K, and undergoes a transition to another magnetic structure below 4.5 K. In applied electric fields of up to 1x10^7 V/m, the magnetic structure of Ho3+ remains unchanged.
We used Raman scattering to study the lattice and magnetic excitations in the hexagonal HoMnO3 single crystals. The E2 phonon mode at 237 cm-1 is affected by the magnetic order. This mode is related to the displacement of Mn and O ions in a-b plane and modulates the Mn-O-Mn bond angles in a-b plane and the in-plane Mn-Mn superexchange interaction. The mode at 269 cm-1 associated to the displacement of the apical Ho3+ ions along the c direction presents an abrupt change of slope at TN showing that the role of the rare earth ions can not be neglected in the magnetic transition. We have identified magnon and crystal field excitations. The temperature dependence of the magnetic excitations has been compared to the Mn and Ho moment and indicates that the exchange interaction pattern between Mn and Ho atoms drives the uniaxial anisotropy gap above the Mn-spin-rotation transition.
We report $^{51}$V nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) studies on single crystals of the multiferroic material FeVO$_4$. The high-temperature Knight shift shows Curie-Weiss behavior, $^{51}K = a/(T + theta)$, with a large Weiss constant $theta approx$ 116 K. However, the $^{51}$V spectrum shows no ordering near these temperatures, splitting instead into two peaks below 65 K, which suggests only short-ranged magnetic order on the NMR time scale. Two magnetic transitions are identified from peaks in the spin-lattice relaxation rate, $1/^{51}T_1$, at temperatures $T_{N1} approx$ 19 K and $T_{N2} approx$ 13 K, which are lower than the estimates obtained from polycrystalline samples. In the low-temperature incommensurate spiral state, the maximum ordered moment is estimated as 1.95${mu}_B$/Fe, or 1/3 of the local moment. Strong low-energy spin fluctuations are also indicated by the unconventional power-law temperature dependence $1/^{51}T_1 propto T^2$. The large Weiss constant, short-range magnetic correlations far above $T_{N1}$, small ordered moment, significant low-energy spin fluctuations, and incommensurate ordered phases all provide explicit evidence for strong magnetic frustration in FeVO$_4$.
Multiferroic properties of orthorhombic HoMnO3 (Pbnm space group) are significantly modified by epitaxial compressive strain along the a-axis. We are able to focus on the effect of strain solely along the a-axis by using an YAlO3 (010) substrate, which has only a small lattice mismatch with HoMnO3 along the other in-plane direction (the c-axis). Multiferroic properties of strained and relaxed HoMnO3 thin films are compared with those reported for bulk, and are found to differ widely. A relaxed film exhibits bulk-like properties such as a ferroelectric transition temperature of 25 K and an incommensurate antiferromagnetic order below 39 K, with an ordering wave vector of (0 qb 0) with qb ~ 0.41 at 10 K. A strained film becomes ferroelectric already at 37.5 K and has an incommensurate magnetic order with qb ~ 0.49 at 10 K.
Orthorhombic HoMnO3 is a multiferroic in which Mn antiferromagnetic order induces ferroelectricity. A second transition occurs within the multiferroic phase, in which a strong enhancement of the ferroelectric polarization occurs concomitantly to antiferromagnetic ordering of Ho 4f magnetic moments. Using the element selectivity of resonant X-ray diffraction, we study the magnetic order of the Mn 3d and Ho 4f moments. We explicitly show that the Mn magnetic order is affected by the Ho 4f magnetic ordering transition. Based on the azimuthal dependence of the (0 q 0) and (0 1-q 0) magnetic reflections, we suggest that the Ho 4f order is similar to that previously observed for Tb 4f in TbMnO3, which resembles an ac-cycloid. This is unlike the Mn order, which has already been shown to be different for the two materials. Using non-resonant diffraction, we show that the magnetically-induced ferroelectric lattice distortion is unaffected by the Ho ordering, suggesting a mechanism through which the Ho order affects polarization without affecting the lattice in the same manner as the Mn order.
We report cooperative magnetic orderings in a 6H-perovskite multiferroic system, Ba3HoRu2O9, via comprehensive neutron powder diffraction measurements. This system undergoes long-range antiferromagnetic ordering at TN1 ~ 50 K with a propagation wave vector of K1 = (0.5 0 0), a transition temperature much higher than the previously reported one at ~10 K (TN2). Both Ru and Ho-moments order simultaneously below TN1, followed by spin-reorientations at lower temperatures, demonstrating strong Ru(4d)-Ho(4f) magnetic correlation. Below TN1 another magnetic phase with a propagation wave vector K2 = (0.25 0.25 0) emerges and coexists with the one associated with K1, which is rarely observed and suggests complex magnetism due to phase competition in the magnetic ground state. We argue that the exchange-striction arising from the up-up-down-down spin structure associated with K2-wave vector below TN2 may be responsible for the small ferroelectric polarization reported previously in this compound.