Spin reorientation and rare earth antiferromagnetic transition in single crystal Sm0.15Dy0.85FeO3

Abstract We report the crystal growth, structure analysis and magnetic phase transitions in the single crystal Sm 0.15 Dy 0.85 FeO 3 . The high-quality of the crystal is verified by X-ray diffraction technique. Our research reveals that: 1) the iron sublattice spin reorientation (SR) transition emerges at 25 K, and ends at 10 K; 2) the rare earth antiferromagnetic (AF) order transition happens at 2.6 K; 3) there is a special wasp-waist hysteresis loop at low temperatures. Knowledge of such phase transitions in rare earth orthoferrite system is of potential importance for applications and theoretical studies.