Field tuning magnetic phase transition in Dy0.5Tb0.5FeO3 single crystal

Abstract RFeO3 is an ideal candidate for the fabrication of spintronic devices, and its rare earth site doping is an important means to regulate and produce many unique spin behaviors. In this work, we report a high-quality Dy0.5Tb0.5FeO3 single crystal grown by optical floating zone method and its magnetic properties are studied explicitly. A type Ⅱ spin switching effect and suppressed spin reorientation transition are found in the Magnetization vs Temperature curves in Dy0.5Tb0.5FeO3. In the temperature region of spin reorientation transition, the transition of Fe3+ magnetic sublattice configuration becomes very complicated by the influence of competitive interaction with magnetic Dy3+/Tb3+ ions. Interestingly, a field tunable double-hysteresis loop is observed near the antiferromagnetic transition temperature of rare earth ions sublattice, which has never been reported in RFeO3 family compounds. By studying the dependence of double-hysteresis loop at different temperatures, the magnetic phase transition and spin reorientation transition induced by the applied magnetic field is inferred. This novel physical phenomenon helps us understand the mechanism of spin configuration transition better at low temperatures.