Magnetic and structural properties of spin-reorientation transitions in orthoferrites.

Magnetic and structural characteristics of ErFeO₃, TmFeO₃, and YbFeO₃ single crystals were studied over a wide temperature range. Magnetic measurements found that the spin-rotation transitions in all crystals are well described by the earlier proposed theory with no fitting parameters. Additionally, they have shown the absence of the magnetic compensation point in TmFeO₃ and a noticeable growth of the c-axis magnetization at low temperatures in TmFeO₃ and ErFeO₃. The x-ray measurements found no symmetry-lowering lattice distortions during the reorientation. Overall, the measurements cover a wide range of material parameters and demonstrate the generality of the modified mean field theory of the Γ₄→Γ₂₄→Γ₂ orientation phase transitions in orthoferrites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]