Effect of Fe or Ni doping on the structure and magnetic properties of YCrO 3 ceramics

In this report, the effect of dopant on the structure and magnetic properties of YCr1-xMxO3 (M = Fe, Ni and x = 0, 0.1) have been investigated by room temperature Raman scattering, X-ray diffraction and temperature variation of magnetic measurements. Compositional modifications have been made by doping of Fe/Ni at Cr-site. Both for Fe and Ni doping, the Rietveld refinement of X-ray diffraction pattern showed that structure is orthorhombic with Pnma space group. In the magnetic measurement, the negative value of Curie-Weiss temperature (θcw) indicates all are antiferromagnetic system. The Neel temperature (TN) increases for Fe doping while decreases with Ni doping which in effect Fe doping increases effectively both the J1 and J2 exchange interactions between the Cr and Cr ions, on the other hand, Ni doping decrease both the exchange interactions. In the Raman study, doping induced structural disorder is clearly reflected as in the form of broadening of the certain Raman modes of the system; when Ni is doped, B3g(5) and B1g(3) modes become broader and in case of Fe-doped sample shows significant broadening in B3g(5), B1g(4) and B1g(3) modes whereas A1g(3) mode appear due to the induced lattice disorder.