Electronic structure and direct observation of ferrimagnetism in multiferroic hexagonal YbFeO3

Abstract

The magnetic interaction between rare-earth and Fe ions in hexagonal rare-earth ferrites (h-REFeO3), may amplify the weak ferromagnetic moment on Fe, making these materials more appealing as multiferroics. To elucidate the interaction strength between the rare-earth and Fe ions as well as the magnetic moment of the rare-earth ions, element specific magnetic characterization is needed. Using X-ray magnetic circular dichroism, we have studied the ferrimagnetism in h-YbFeO3 by measuring the magnetization of Fe and Yb separately. The results directly show anti-alignment of magnetization of Yb and Fe ions in h-YbFeO3 at low temperature, with an exchange field on Yb of about 17 kOe. The magnetic moment of Yb is about 1.6 \muB at low-temperature, significantly reduced compared with the 4.5 \muB moment of a free Yb3+. In addition, the saturation magnetization of Fe in h-YbFeO3 has a sizable enhancement compared with that in h-LuFeO3. These findings directly demonstrate that ferrimagnetic order exists in h-YbFeO3; they also account for the enhancement of magnetization and the reduction of coercivity in h-YbFeO3 compared with those in h-LuFeO3 at low temperature, suggesting an important role for the rare-earth ions in tuning the multiferroic properties of h-REFeO3.

References in corpus (8)

• Magnetic Structure and Ordering of Multiferroic Hexagonal LuFeO3
• Multiferroic hexagonal ferrites (h-RFeO${}_3$, R=Y, Dy-Lu): an experimental review
• Cyrstal field splitting and optical band gap of hexagonal LuFeO${}_3$ films
• Structural and electronic origin of the magnetic structures in hexagonal LuFeO${}_3$
• On the Structural Origin of the Single-ion Magnetic Anisotropy in LuFeO3
• Effects of biaxial strain on the improper multiferroicity in h-LuFeO3 films
• Phase separation in LuFeO3 films
• Effect of interface on epitaxy and magnetism in h-RFeO3/Fe3O4/Al2O3 films (R=Lu, Yb)

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Tuning the Magnetic Ordering Temperature of Hexagonal Ferrites by Structural Distortion Control
• Magnetic structure and multiferroicity of Sc-substituted hexagonal YbFeO${}_3$
• Magnetoelectric coupling and decoupling in multiferroic hexagonal YbFeO3 thin films
• Magnetic Amplification at Yb3+ "Designer Defects" in the van der Waals Ferromagnet, CrI3
• Recent Progress on Multiferroic Hexagonal Rare-Earth Ferrites (h-RFeO3, R = Y,Dy-Lu)
• Persistent Interfacial Topological Hall Effect Demonstrating Electrical Readout of Topological Spin Structures in Insulators