Investigation of charge states and multiferroicity in Fe-doped h-YMnO3

Polycrystalline YMn(1-x)FexO(3) (YMFOx) (0 <= x <= 0.1) compounds have been prepared in single phase and characterized by synchrotron X-ray diffraction, X-ray absorption near edge spectroscopy, magnetization, and dielectric measurements. Iron-substitution in hexagonal YMnO3 causes intra-lattice changes exceeding those of the lattice cell. X-ray absorption near edge structure provides mixed-valence Mn3+/Mn4+ and Fe4+ charge states in these manganites, consistent with the observed decrease of the effective magnetic moment with Fe-doping. Magnetization M(T) evidence antiferromagnetic ordering of the specimens with little weak ferromagnetism, and the metrices of exchange interaction suppress with Fe-doping, attributed to the lengthening of the Mn-O planar bond lengths. Dielectric epsilon'(T) results showing highly doping-dependent anomaly at T-N indicate linear magneto-electric coupling. (C) 2013 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4794831]