Strain-induced effects on antiferromagnetic ordering and magnetocapacitance in orthorhombic HoMnO3 thin films

We investigated the magnetic and ferroelectric properties of c-axis oriented orthorhombic phase HoMnO3 (o-HMO in Pbnm symmetry setting) thin films grown on Nb-doped SrTiO3(001) substrates. The o-HMO films exhibit an antiferromagnetic ordering near 42 K, irrespective of the orientation of the applied field. However, an additional magnetic ordering occurring around 35 K was observed when the field was applied along the c-axis of o-HMO, which was absent when the field was applied in the ab-plane. The magnetocapacitance measured along the c-axis showed that although there is evidence of dielectric constant enhancement when the temperature is below 35 K the expected abrupt change in dielectric constant appears at a much lower temperature and reaches maximum around 13.5 K, indicating that the low-temperature c-axis polarization might be related to the ordering of the Ho3+ moment. The lattice constant analyses using x-ray diffraction and the observation of a slight magnetization hysteresis suggest that the weak second magnetic transition along the c-axis at 35 K might be more relevant to the strain-induced effect on antiferromagnetism.