Hydrothermal preparation of perovskite structures DyCrO₃ and HoCrO₃

Perovskite structured rare-earth chromites are one of the most promising families of functional materials in solid oxide fuel cells, multiferroic materials, and sensors. Here, we report a mild hydrothermal method to synthesize DyCrO₃ and HoCrO₃ monodispersed single crystals. The synthesis conditions, crystal structure, Raman spectra and temperature- and field-dependent magnetic properties were studied. The two samples are indexed to the Pbnm space group. The shapes of the crystals are plates with a narrow particle size distribution in the range of 4-5 μm. Raman spectra of the samples show typical vibration modes of CrO₆ clusters and stretching modes of RE³⁺. Temperature dependent magnetization shows a weak antiferromagnetism to paramagnetism transition at ca. 100 K for the two samples.