Magnetic signatures and interplay of Cr3+-Cr3+, Gd3+-Cr3+ and Gd3+-Gd3+ superexchange interactions in the GdCrO3 nanoparticles

Full text: The GdCrO3 belongs to the family of rare earth orthochromites with a general formula: RCrO3 and is reported to crystallize in a distorted perovskite structure. This family of compounds is known to be extremely rich with interesting magnetic properties due to the interaction between R+3 and Cr+3 ions leading to ordering at low temperatures. GdCrO3, in particular, shows spin canted antiferromagnetism at reduced temperatures. A renewed interest has grown into these compounds recently as it is shown that below TN2, all the RMO3 compounds are supposed to show the magnetoelectric effect due to the lack of the inversion symmetry where an applied electric field induces a net magnetization in the material which is proportion to the electric field and similarly an applied magnetic field induces an electric polarization which is proportional to H. This family of compounds effects on the structure and magnetic properties. Here we report for the first time, the synthesis of GdCrO3 nanoparticles using the hydrothermal method. The as-synthesized GdCrO3 nanoparticles show very good crystallinity. The XRD patterns indicate excellent crystallinity of as synthesized nanoparticles reaction products have pure phase with lattice parameters matching with the bulk values of a=5.3 I, b=5.52, and c=7.60 A. The DC magnetization measurements result exhibits negative magnetization when magnetization temperature curves are measured in the field cooled mode with low applied fields (<500 Oe). It has a canted-antiferromagnetic order with a Neel temperature (TN) of 170 K