Determination of the magnetic structures in orthoferrite CeFeO3by neutron powder diffraction: first order spin reorientation and appearance of an ordered Ce-moment

Clemens Ritter; Monica Ceretti; Werner Paulus

doi:10.1088/1361-648X/abe64a

Determination of the magnetic structures in orthoferrite CeFeO₃by neutron powder diffraction: first order spin reorientation and appearance of an ordered Ce-moment

J Phys Condens Matter. 2021 Apr 29;33(21). doi: 10.1088/1361-648X/abe64a.

Authors

Clemens Ritter¹, Monica Ceretti², Werner Paulus²

Affiliations

¹ Institut Laue-Langevin, 71 Avenue des Martyrs, 38000 Grenoble, France.
² ICGM, University of Montpellier, CNRS, ENSCM, Montpellier, France.

PMID: 33588404
DOI: 10.1088/1361-648X/abe64a

Abstract

High resolution and high intensity neutron powder diffraction are used to determine the temperature dependence of the crystallographic and magnetic structure of the orthoferrite CeFeO₃. The high temperatureG_x-type magnetic coupling of the Fe-sublattice described by the Γ₄(G_xA_yF_z) irreducible representation changes at the spin reorientation temperatureT_SR= 228 K to aG_y-type coupling of Γ₁(A_xG_yC_z). The spin reorientation is of first order and sees a hysteresis of about 2.5 K atT_SR. Below 35 K faint magnetic peaks reflectingC_ztype magnetic coupling appear and are argued to be related to the Ce-sublattice. Magnetic moments at 2 K amount toμ_Fe= 4.15 μ_Bandμ_Ce= 0.11 μ_B. CeFeO₃is only the secondRFeO₃compound after DyFeO₃showing this ground state magnetic structure of the Fe-sublattice. The orthorhombic structurePbnmis kept over the whole temperature range.

Keywords: CeFeO3; magnetic structure; neutron diffraction; orthoferrites; spin reorientation.