Spin-phonon coupling in multiferroic Y2CoMnO6

Spin-phonon coupling in rare-earth based, manganites with double perovskite structure plays a crucial role in the magnetoelectric properties of these ferromagnetic materials. Particularly, on Y2CoMnO6 (YCMO), it is assumed that spin-phonon coupling is related to the induced ferroelectric polarization. This confers to YCMO a multiferroic characteristic. In this work, we probed the spin-phonon coupling in YCMO by temperature-dependent Raman spectroscopy measurements in ceramic samples obtained by the nitrate decomposition method. Raman scattering revealed some anomalies that could be attributed to a weak spin-phonon coupling, an unconventional behavior for rare-earth based manganites with double perovskite structure, in which the coupling does not fit with the quadratic magnetization. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.