Structural and magnetic properties of Mg doped YbMnO < inf > 3 < /inf >

Abstract

We have studied the effect of Mg doping on structure and magnetism of multiferroic YbMnO3. Room temperature neutron diffraction studies were carried out on polycrystalline Yb1-xMgxMnO 3 (x=0.00 and 0.05) samples to determine phase formation as well as cation distribution and structural properties such as bond length and bond angles. The structural analysis shows that with Mg substitution, there is a marginal change in a and c parameters of the hexagonal unit cell, c/a ratio remains constant for x=0 and 0.05 samples. Due to changes in bond angle and bond lengths on substituting Mg, there is a slight decrease in the distortion of MnO5 polyhedra. Magnetic measurements show that the Néel temperature (TN) increases marginally from 85 K for x=0.00 to 89 K for x=0.05 sample. © 2014 Elsevier B.V.