Magnetic characterization and low-temperature heat transport properties of the orthoferrites RFeO3(R = rare earth and Y) single crystals

Summary form only given. Orthoferrites RFeO₃(except R=Y, La and Lu) possess two sets of magnetic sublattice, that is, Fe³⁺ sub-system and R³⁺ sub-system. Magnetic properties and interactions between the two sub-systems including Fe-Fe, R-Fe, and R-R interactions depend on external parameters, such as temperature, magnetic field, etc. So real magnetic materials can exhibt rich low temperature characteristics. We have successfully grown the orthoferrites RFeO₃(R = Dy, Ho and Y) and Ho_1-xY_xFeO₃(x = 0 .1 and 0 .3) by the floating zone technique using a four-mirror image furnace. The halogen lamp power and crystal growth atmosphere were identified to be the most important parameters. High-quality single crystals have been demonstrated by the X-ray diffraction data and X-ray Laue photograph. The magnetic transitions with decreasing temperature and the field-induced magnetic phase transitions in RFeO₃ for the rare earth ions and Fe³⁺ can be characterized by low-temperature magnetization and specific heat measurements. In addition, we report the low-temperature heat transport measurements of these orthoferrites single crystals to probe the magnetic properties and find that they show strong magnetic field dependence. The characteristic fields have a good correspondence with some transformations of the magnetic structure. These special behaviors demonstrate the magnetic field-induced transitions of the Fe³⁺ and R³⁺ spin structure.