No Arabic abstract
We report the results of our investigation of the physical properties of mixed metal oxides RFe0.5Cr0.5O3 (R = Er and Yb). ErFe0.5Cr0.5O3 undergoes an antiferromagnetic ordering around 270 K followed by spin reorientation (SR) transitions around 150 and 8 K respectively. In contrast, in YbFe0.5Cr0.5O3 a single SR transition is noted at 36 K, below the AFM ordering temperature of 280 K. In ErFe0.5Cr0.5O3, a significant value of magnetic entropy change ({Delta}SM) ~ -12.4 J/kg-K is noted near the 2nd SR transition, however, this value is suppressed in YbFe0.5Cr0.5O3. Temperature dependent dielectric permittivity of ErFe0.5Cr0.5O3 and YbFe0.5Cr0.5O3 at different frequencies, reveal the presence of Debye-like relaxation behaviour in both compounds, which can be due to the effect of charge carrier hopping between localized states of Fe and Cr ions. Temperature dependent Raman scattering studies divulge that spin-phonon coupling plays a crucial role in defining the physical properties of these compounds.
Polarized neutron diffraction experiments have been performed on multiferroic materials $R$Mn$_{2}$O$_{5}$ ($R=$Ho, Er) under electric fields in the ferroelectric commensurate (CM) and the low-temperature incommensurate (LT-ICM) phases, where the former has the highest electric polarization and the latter has reduced polarization. It is found that, after cooling in electric fields down to the CM phase, the magnetic chirality is proportional to the electric polarization. Also we confirmed that the magnetic chirality can be switched by the polarity of the electric polarization in both the CM and LT-ICM phases. These facts suggest an intimate coupling between the magnetic chirality and the electric polarization. However, upon the transition from the CM to LT-ICM phase, the reduction of the electric polarization is not accompanied by any reduction of the magnetic chirality, implying that the CM and LT-ICM phases contain different mechanisms of the magnetoelectric coupling.
We have investigated the influence of 3d-4f spin interaction on magnetic and magnetocaloric properties of DyCrO$_4$ and HoCrO$_4$ compounds by magnetization and heat capacity measurements. Both the compounds exhibit complicated magnetic properties and huge magnetic entropy change around the ferromagnetic transition due to the strong competition between ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic superexchange interactions. For a field change of 8 T, the maximum values of magnetic entropy change ($Delta S_{M}^{max}$), adiabatic temperature change ($Delta T_{ad}$), and refrigerant capacity (RC) reach 29 J kg$^{-1}$ K$^{-1}$, 8 K, and 583 J kg$^{-1}$, respectively for DyCrO$_4$ whereas the corresponding values for HoCrO$_4$ are 31 J kg$^{-1}$ K$^{-1}$, 12 K, and 622 J kg$^{-1}$. $Delta S_{M}^{max}$, $Delta T_{ad}$, and RC are also quite large for a moderate field change. The large values of magnetocaloric parameters suggest that the zircon-type DyCrO$_4$ and HoCrO$_4$ could be the potential magnetic refrigerant materials for liquefaction of hydrogen.
The magnetic phase diagrams of RMnO3 (R = Er, Yb, Tm, Ho) are investigated up to 14 Tesla via magnetic and dielectric measurements. The stability range of the AFM order below the Neel temperature of the studied RMnO3 extends to far higher magnetic fields than previously assumed. Magnetic irreversibility indicating the presence of a spontaneous magnetic moment is found near 50 K for R=Er, Yb, and Tm. At very low temperatures and low magnetic fields the phase boundary defined by the ordering of the rare earth moments is resolved. The sizable dielectric anomalies observed along all phase boundaries are evidence for strong spin-lattice coupling in the hexagonal RMnO3. In HoMnO3 the strong magnetoelastic distortions are investigated in more detail via magnetostriction experiments up to 14 Tesla. The results are discussed based on existing data on magnetic symmetries and the interactions between the Mn-spins, the rare earth moments, and the lattice.
Elastic neutron scattering, ac susceptibility, and specific heat experiments on the pyrochlores Er$_{2}$Ge$_{2}$O$_{7}$ and Yb$_{2}$Ge$_{2}$O$_{7}$ show that both systems are antiferromagnetically ordered in the $Gamma_5$ manifold. The ground state is a $psi_{3}$ phase for the Er sample and a $psi_{2}$ or $psi_{3}$ phase for the Yb sample, which suggests Order by Disorder(ObD) physics. Furthermore, we unify the various magnetic ground states of all known R$_{2}$B$_{2}$O$_{7}$ (R = Er, Yb, B = Sn, Ti, Ge) compounds through the enlarged XY type exchange interaction $J_{pm}$ under chemical pressure. The mechanism for this evolution is discussed in terms of the phase diagram proposed in the theoretical study [Wong et al., Phys. Rev. B 88, 144402, (2013)].
We present a systematic study of the crystal field interactions in the Li$R$F$_4$, $R$ = Gd, Ho, Er, Tm and Yb, family of rare-earth magnets. Using detailed inelastic neutron scattering measurements we have been able to quantify the transition energies and wavefunctions for each system. This allows us to quantitatively describe the high-temperature susceptibility measurements for the series of materials and make predictions based on a mean-field approach for the low-temperature thermal and quantum phase transitions. We show that coupling between crystal field and phonon states leads to lineshape broadening in LiTmF$_4$ and level splitting in LiYbF$_4$. Furthermore, using high resolution neutron scattering from LiHoF$_4$, we find anomalous broadening of crystal-field excitations which we attribute to magnetoelastic coupling.