Structural, magnetic and magnetocaloric properties of hexagonal multiferroic Yb < inf > 1-x < /inf > Sc < inf > x < /inf > MnO < inf > 3 < /inf > (x = 0.1 and 0.2)

Abstract

We have studied the effect of Sc doping on the structural, magnetic and magnetocaloric properties of multiferroic Yb1-xScxMnO3 (x = 0.1 and 0.2). X-ray powder diffraction shows that both samples crystallize in the hexagonal phase with P63cm space group. The structural analysis shows a decrease in the lattice parameter a, a decrease in the cell volume of the hexagonal unit cell and a decrease in the average bond length between Mn-O, with Sc substitution. Magnetic measurements show that the Néel temperature (TN) increases from 90 K for x = 0.1 to 94 K for x = 0.2 samples. Isothermal magnetic curves show that the field variation in magnetization generates a metamagnetic transition. The maximum entropy change -ΔSmaxM and the relative cooling power (RCP) of Yb1-xScxMnO3 are found to be 2.46 ± 0.40 J mol-1 K-1 and 38.5 ± 9 J mol-1 for x = 0.1 and 1.87 ± 0.31 J mol-1 K-1 and, 30.1 ± 8 J mol-1 for x = 0.2 with ΔH = 10 T. The rescaled magnetic entropy change curves for different applied fields collapse onto a single curve for materials with second-order phase transitions.