This article is cited in 29 papers

Magnetism

Magnetic properties of HoFe$_3$(BO$_3$)$_4$

A. A. Demidov^a, D. V. Volkov<sup>b

a</sup> Bryansk State Technical University
^b Lomonosov Moscow State University

Abstract: The magnetic properties of an antiferromagnet with trigonal symmetry, namely, HoFe$_3$(BO$_3$)$_4$, have been investigated theoretically. The calculations have been performed in the molecular field approximation and in the framework of the crystal field model for the rare-earth subsystem. Extensive experimental data on the magnetic properties of HoFe$_3$(BO$_3$)$_4$ have been interpreted and good agreement between theory and experiment has been achieved using the obtained theoretical dependences. The spontaneous spin-reorientation transition and the spin-reorientation transition induced by a magnetic field $\mathbf{B}\parallel\mathbf{a}$ from the easy-axis to easy-plane state, as well as the spin-flop transition in a magnetic field $\mathbf{B}\parallel\mathbf{c}$, have been described. It has been shown that the spontaneous spin-reorientation transition is a magnetic analog of the Jahn-Teller effect. The temperature dependences of the initial magnetic susceptibility at temperatures ranging from 2 to 300 K, the nonlinear curves of magnetization for $\mathbf{B}\parallel\mathbf{c}$ and $\mathbf{B}\perp\mathbf{c}$ in a magnetic field up to 1.2 T (which indicate the occurrence of first-order phase transitions), and their evolution with variations in the temperature have been described, as well as the temperature and field dependences of the magnetization in a magnetic field up to 9 T. The parameters of the trigonal crystal field for the rare-earth ion Ho$^{3+}$ and the parameters of the Fe–Fe and Ho–Fe exchange interactions have been determined in the course of interpretation of the experimental data.

Received: 16.06.2010
Accepted: 18.10.2010

 English version: Physics of the Solid State, 2011, 53:5, 985–996

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