Studies of magnetic phase transitions in orthorhombic DyMnO3 ceramics prepared by acrylamide polymer gel template method

Single phase polycrystalline DyMnO3 (DMO) was synthesized using acrylamide polymer gel template method. We report the structural, magnetic, specific heat and dielectric properties of DMO over wide experimental conditions. Room temperature XRD pattern shows the formation of singe phase material without any impurity. The magnetic properties such as magnetization versus temperature (M vs. T) and magnetization versus magnetic field (M vs. H) were studied around the transition temperatures region. The temperature dependent magnetization data suggest two phase transitions corresponding to the lock-in temperature below which ferroelectric ordering exist (around 19 K; Tlock) and antiferromagnetic (AFM) ordering of Dy spin (around 8 K; TN (Dy)). The magnetic hysteresis obtained were fitted to extract weak ferromagnetic (FM) and antiferromagnetic/paramagnetic (AFM/PM) contribution to the magnetic data. The order of magnetic transitions were analyzed from Arrott plot. The temperature dependent specific heat measurement shows all three phase transitions corresponding to (i) AFM ordering of Mn spin (around 38 K; TN(Mn)), (ii) Tlock transition and (iii) TN(Dy) transition. The effect of magnetic field to the transitions were studied using specific heat capacity measurement. The peak intensity of TN(Dy) decreases on the application of magnetic field whereas peak intensity of Tlock increases with increase in magnetic field in specific heat measurement. Further the third anomaly, TN (Mn) remains more or less unaffected by the application of magnetic field. The intrinsic dielectric behaviour of the material was observed up to 160 K, above this temperature there is large increase in dielectric value due to the contribution from Maxwell- Wagner polarization.