Modification of low temperature magnetic interactions in Dy_1- Eu MnO₃

Solid solutions of rare earth ion (Eu³⁺) substituted DyMnO₃, Dy_1- Eu MnO₃ (x = 0.0-1.0) have been synthesized by ceramic method. Powder X-ray diffraction revealed single phase nature of the compounds with orthorhombic structure. Contributions from the atomic vibrations to the observation of Raman bands have been established and assigned to symmetry stretching and anti symmetry stretching, bending and tilting modes. Raman band frequencies of tilting, asymmetric stretching and bending modes were found to decrease with increasing europium concentration showing softening. Transport studies revealed that all the compounds show semiconducting nature. While the end compounds display hopping process for electrical conduction, all the substituted compounds showed activated type of conduction, and activated energy was found to reduce with increase in x. Molar susceptibility of the substituted compounds for x = 0.1, 0.3 and 0.5 revealed an antiferromagnetic transition corresponding to Mn ions. The fitted Curie-Weiss temperatures also suggested the existence of antiferromagnetic interactions in all the materials. The magnetic field dependent magnetization at various temperatures revealed paramagnetic nature down to 8 K below which hysteresis loops are observed. The presence of strong ferromagnetic correlations between Dy and Mn spins through apical oxygen ions results in the large coercive fields. For temperatures above the antiferromagnetic temperature of manganese ions (39 K) M-H curves show almost straight lines implying the absence of ferromagnetic interactions in the compounds. Different magnetic transitions: from high temperature paramagnetic state to intermediate temperature antiferromagnetic state to low temperature ferromagnetic states are observed in the M-H data.