abstract
Praseodymium (Pr) modified yttrium orthochromites (YCrO3 with Pr = 0% and 5% at Y-sites) have been investigated with the aim of exploring the impact of low level Pr substitution on the magnetic properties including magnetization reversal, spin reorientation, and exchange bias of YCrO3 compound. The samples exhibit a distorted orthorhombic structure with Pnma space group. A negative magnetization (or magnetization reversal) was observed under zero-field cooled (ZFC) mode for the pristine YCrO3 sample, whereas such a feature disappeared with a 5% Pr substitution. In addition, the Pr-doped samples exhibited a spin reorientation behaviour which was absent in the pristine sample. Most interestingly, the ZFC magnetic hysteresis loops revealed a left and upward shift, resembling a negative exchange bias effect. These results indicate the effectiveness of low level doping in tailoring the magnetic properties of orthochromites.
keywords
NEGATIVE MAGNETIZATION; WEAK-FERROMAGNETISM; EXCHANGE BIAS; REVERSAL
subject category
Physics
authors
Kumar, S; Coondoo, I; Rao, A; Lu, BH; Kuo, YK; Kholkin, AL; Panwar, N
our authors
Andrei Kholkin
Research Coordinator
Indrani Coondoo
Researcheracknowledgements
The authors (S.K. and N.P.) would like to thank University Grant Commission, New Delhi for providing Rajiv Gandhi National Fellowship (RGNF) and UGC Start-up-grant, whereas I.C. acknowledges the financial support from FCT, Portugal through SFRH/BPD/81032/2011. Support from the Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan under Grants No. MOST-103-2112-M-259-008-MY3 to Y.K.K. is also acknowledged. A.L.K. acknowledges CICECO-Aveiro Institute of Materials (Ref. FCT UID/CTM/50011/2013) financed by National Funds Through the FCT/MEC and, when applicable, co-financed by FEDER under the PT2020 Partnership Agreement.