Interplay between spin reorientation and magnetoelastic transitions, and anisotropic magnetostriction in the Mn1.95Cr0.05Sb single crystal

A single crystal of tetragonal Mn_1.95Cr_0.05Sb has been successfully grown by a modified-Bridgeman method with tiny amounts of hexagonal MnSb secondary phase distributed in the self-assembled mosaic boundaries. Under low magnetic fields, the consecutive occurrences of a spin-reorientation transition (SRT) and a magnetoelastic transition from ferrimagnetic (FRI) state to antiferromagnetic (AFM) state appear in c-axis, while these two transitions occur separately in a-axis. Such behavior can be ascribed to the asynchronous spin reorientation, which is resulted from the competition between the Zeeman energy and the magnetocrystalline anisotropy. More interestingly, the anisotropic magnetostrictions associated with the field-induced metamagnetic magnetoelastic transition have been observed. In the process of cooling, the maximum reversible values of ∼0.230% and ∼−0.125% are obtained at 165 K along c- and a-axes, respectively, for the application of cyclic magnetic fields up to 30 kOe. These values are consistent with those estimated by the difference in thermal expansion curves near the transition region. Moreover, it can be also found that the metamagnetic magnetoelastic transition shows either a narrow hysteresis (∼6 K) and a strong sensitivity to the magnetic field (∼−0.5 K/kOe). Therefore, the high reversible magnetostriction is spread over a wide temperature range for the studied sample. Our experimental findings indicate that the Mn₂Sb-based intermetallics can be considered as a promising candidate with low-cost for magnetostriction.