Study of Y1-xErx,FeO3 (0 ≤ x ≤ 1) powder synthesized by sol-gel method and their magnetic properties

A series of single phase Y1-xErxFeO3 (0 <= x <= 1) orthoferrite samples were synthesized by sol-gel method and their magnetic properties were studied in detail. The prepared samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The obviously weak ferromagnetic property, which caused by Dzialoshinski Moriya (DM) antisymmetric exchange mechanism, was observed in YFeO3 for the magnetization jump at H=0 Oe. The magnetization of YFeO3 was evidently changed by doping Er3+. The increase of the Er3+ content in Y1-xErxFeO3 greatly enhanced the paramagnetic component and gradually decreased the ferromagnetic component. (C) 2016 Published by Elsevier B.V.