Non-collinear weak ferromagnetism in LaCrO3: a theoretical study

The ABO3 perovskite systems have been investigated widely due to their potential in novel device applications and fundamental interest in the physics of their phase transitions. The ideal perovskite structure exhibits cubic symmetry, where body centered position is occupied by B atoms and edges by A atoms and oxygen at face centers with Pm3m space group. The LaCrO3 system is a pseudo-perovskite or distorted perovskite, showing antiferromagnetic (AFM) transition ∼ 290 K near room temperature. Additionally this system has been explored widely because of its potential for in solid oxide fuel cells as interconnects and magneto-optic discs. The system also undergoes a crystallographic transition from orthorhombic to rhombohedral structure at ∼ 530 K in conjugation with high temperature ∼1875 K, cubic phase transition. There are few theoretical studies, where structural, electronic and magnetic properties are explored for this system. Ravindran et al have used local spin-density approximation to understand the insulating properties of LaCrO3 related systems and estimated electronic band gap and optical gap are ∼ 1.45 eV and 3.5 eV respectively