Materials (Apr 2020)

Magnetic Domain-Wall Induced Electric Polarization in NdCrO<sub>3</sub> Polycrystalline Ceramic

  • Songwei Wang,
  • Yang Bai,
  • Xin Zhang,
  • Liguo Fan,
  • Huaiying Zhou

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/ma13081904
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 13, no. 8
p. 1904

Abstract

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We reported the magnetic, dielectric and magnetoelectric properties of NdCrO3 polycrystalline ceramics. Magnetization curves revealed two magnetic transitions at 227 K and 38 K, which corresponded to Cr3+ canted antiferromagnetic ordering and Cr3+ spin reorientation phase transition, respectively. At 11.5 K, a Schottky-type anomaly was observed, caused by Nd3+ ground doublet Zeeman splitting. High-temperature dielectric relaxation exhibited a type of thermally activated relaxation process, which mainly resulted from the Maxwell–Wagner effect. The spin-reorientation of Cr3+ ions and the Nd3+ ground doublet splitting were observed to be accompanied by an electric polarization. The polarization could be induced by the presence of the antiferromagnetic-type domain walls, which led to spatial inversion symmetry breaking.

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