A comparative study on magnetic order and field-induced magnetic transition in double perovskite iridates: RE₂ZnIrO₆ and RE₂MgIrO₆ (RE = Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd)

We perform a comparative magnetic study on two series of rare-earth (RE) based double perovskite iridates RE₂BIrO₆ (RE = Pr, Nd, Sm–Gd; B = Zn, Mg), which show Mott insulating state with tunable charge energy gap from ∼330 meV to ∼560 meV by changing RE cations. For nonmagnetic RE = Eu cations, Eu₂MgIrO₆ shows antiferromagnetic (AFM) order and field-induced spin-flop transitions below Néel temperature (T _N) in comparison with the ferromagnetic (FM)-like behaviors of Eu₂ZnIrO₆ at low temperatures. For magnetic-moment-containing RE ions, Gd₂BIrO₆ show contrasting magnetic behaviors with FM-like transition (B = Zn) and AFM order (B = Mg), respectively. While, for RE = Pr, Nd and Sm ions, all members show AFM ground state and field-induced spin-flop transitions below T _N irrespective of B = Zn or Mg cations. Moreover, two successive field-induced metamagnetic transitions are observed for RE₂ZnIrO₆ (RE = Pr, Nd) in high field up to 56 T, the resultant field temperature (H–T) phase diagrams are constructed. The diverse magnetic behaviors in RE₂BIrO₆ reveal that the 4f-Ir exchange interactions between the RE and Ir sublattices can mediate their magnetism. (paper)