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Observation of electric polarization reversal and magnetodielectric effect in orthochromites: A comparison between LuCrO 3 and ErCrO 3

2014; American Physical Society; Volume: 89; Issue: 14 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1103/physrevb.89.144401

1550-235X

K. R. S. Preethi Meher, A. Wahl, A. Maignan, C. Martin, Oleg I. Lebedev,

Magnetic and transport properties of perovskites and related materials

The presence of electric field--induced polarization reversal behavior just below N\'eel's antiferromagnetic ordering temperature (${T}_{\mathrm{N}}$) is demonstrated in polycrystalline orthorhombic ${\mathrm{LuCrO}}_{3}$, which crystallizes in the centrosymmetric space group (Pbnm) at room temperature. This result on ${\mathrm{LuCrO}}_{3}$ is compared with ${\mathrm{ErCrO}}_{3}$, another orthochromite. The single phase nature and the quality of both polycrystalline samples were checked by x-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The high-resolution TEM images of ${\mathrm{LuCrO}}_{3}$ and ${\mathrm{ErCrO}}_{3}$ brought out the presence of twin boundaries. Detailed magnetic, dielectric, and polarization studies were carried out on both systems. As the presence of ferroelectric-like characteristics is found below ${T}_{\mathrm{N}}$ in both ${\mathrm{LuCrO}}_{3}$ and ${\mathrm{ErCrO}}_{3}$, this rules out the condition for the rare earth cation to be paramagnetic for observing possible signatures of multiferroicity in this family of compounds. Also, we report a much stronger magnetodielectric effect in the case of ${\mathrm{ErCrO}}_{3}$ compared with ${\mathrm{LuCrO}}_{3}$ reflecting the different magnetism of their $A$-site cations.