Hydrothermal synthesis and magnetic properties of REFe0.5Cr0.5O3 (RE = La, Tb, Ho, Er, Yb, Lu and Y) perovskite

Abstract

A low temperature, one-pot route to iron-doped rare-earth chromite perovskite was proposed. Fe half-doped rare-earth chromites, REFe_0.5Cr_0.5O₃ (RE = La, Tb, Ho, Er, Yb, Lu and Y) were prepared via a mild hydrothermal method and their magnetic properties were studied. All of these materials are well-crystallized and the profile refinement of powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) data showed that each of them adopts an orthorhombic distorted (Pbnm) perovskite structure. The temperature dependence of the magnetization curves indicate an improved order of arrangement of Fe³⁺ and Cr³⁺ at the B-site in some samples. Hysteresis measurements of YFe_0.5Cr_0.5O₃ indicate that saturated and remnant magnetization were improved greatly compared to that prepared via the solid state method.