Tailoring complex magnetic phase transition in HoFeO3

Abstract We synthesized a series of Ho 1− x Pr x FeO 3 and HoFe 1− x Mn x O 3 polycrystalline compounds to study the A-site and B-site substitution effects on the structural and magnetic properties in HoFeO 3 . For A-site Pr 3+ substitution, the spin reorientation temperature increases from 50 K at x =0 to 76 K at x =0.3. This results from that the distortion of the crystal structure and Fe–O octahedron is reduced due to Pr 3+ substitution, which thus weakens the Fe 3+ –Fe 3+ interaction. For B-site Mn 3+ substitution, the Mn 3+ substitution weakens the Fe 3+ –Fe 3+ antiferromagnetic interaction, leading to the significant increase of the spin reorientation temperature and the decrease of the antiferromagnetic transition temperature as Mn 3+ content increases. For x =0.45, both the spin reorientation and antiferromagnetic transition temperature draw close to room temperature. Besides, the weak ferromagnetism decreases due to the reduction of the Dzyaloshinsky–Moriya interaction caused by the dilution of Mn 3+ ions.