Magnetic properties of a Ho2Fe14Si3 single crystal

A. V. Andreev , D. I. Gorbunov , Y. Skourski , M. D. Kuz'Min (1) , E. A. Tereshina , M. S. Henriques

1 IM2NP - Institut des Matériaux, de Microélectronique et des Nanosciences de Provence

Magnetization of a Ho2Fe14Si3 single crystal was measured in a steady magnetic field of up to 9 T and in pulsed fields of up to 60 T applied along the principal axes. Ho2Fe14Si3 is a ferrimagnet below T-c = 480 K, has a spontaneous magnetic moment of about 8 mu B/f.u. (at T = 4.2 K) and exhibits a large easy-plane magnetic anisotropy. There is also a certain anisotropy within the basal plane, the b axis [120] being the easy-magnetization direction. In fields applied along the a and b axes field-induced first-order phase transitions are observed at 29 T and at 22 T, respectively. Along the easy axis b we observe also an Sshaped anomaly at about 47 T, which does not correspond to a phase transition. A simple model predicts that the two observed first-order transitions are the only ones taking place in Ho2Fe14Si3; the magnetization should subsequently grow continuously and arrive at saturation at similar to 100 T. This is in stark contrast to the behavior of the parent compound Ho2Fe17, where as many as three sequential first-order transitions are expected for H parallel to b. The reason for the disparity is that the basal-plane anisotropy constant K-Ho is at least one order of magnitude smaller in Ho2Fe14Si3 than it is in Ho2Fe17. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Domaines: Micro et nanotechnologies/Microélectronique

A. V. Andreev, D. I. Gorbunov, Y. Skourski, M. D. Kuz'Min, E. A. Tereshina, et al.. Magnetic properties of a Ho2Fe14Si3 single crystal. Journal of Alloys and Compounds, 2017, 694, pp.761-766. ⟨10.1016/j.jallcom.2016.10.069⟩. ⟨hal-01694488⟩