Magnetic Properties of a Gadolinium Orthoferrite, GdFeO3, Crystal

Abstract

Gadolinium orthoferrite, GdFeO3, in single-crystal form exhibits magnetization between temperatures of 78 and 295°K which consists of a field independent part σ0 and a field dependent part χH for fields above 6000 oersteds. The parasitic ferromagnetization σ0 amounts to about 1% of the σ(Fe) available and may be attributed to imperfectly compensated antiferromagnetism of the Fe3+ ion sublattice. The susceptibility χ appears to be made up of a paramagnetic contribution from the Gd3+ ion sublattice and a contribution from the antiferromagnetic Fe3+ ion sublattice influenced by interaction between the two sublattices. The anisotropy of σ0 and χ changes with temperature. The maximum σ0 and minimum χ do not coincide as they would if both took the direction of the antiferromagnetic axis of the Fe3+ ion sublattice.