Multiferroicity in the YFeO3 crystal

Abstract

In this paper, orthoferrite YFeO3 was synthesized by hydrothermal method. The space group of YFeO3 is Pnma and the spin state of [Formula: see text] ion is low spin (LS). The YFeO3 crystal exhibits a weak antiferromagnetic behavior by magnetic measurement. For the electrical polarization measurement, micron-scale Pt electrodes were deposited on the both sides of the YFeO3 crystal by FIB-induced deposition. The saturation polarization value is 0.1994[Formula: see text][Formula: see text]C/cm2 at room temperature. The crystal exhibits ferroelectric behavior through the Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction induced by additional spin canting of the antiferromagnetic ordering. This work may be applied to further study of the multiferroicity in rare-earth orthoferrites RFeO3.