Magnetic structure evolution of multiferroic hexagonal YMn 1-x Fe x O 3 (x= 0, 0.05, and 0.1) has been studied by carrying out detailed temperature-dependent neutron diffraction at zero and 5T fields.Thermodynamic data confirm antiferromagnetic ordering at T N in all the compositions. Our sub-T N neutron diffraction results assign the magnetic structure of pure YMnO 3 to Γ 1 irreducible representation. Over the perturbative-doping range, magnetic structure changes via Γ 1 +Γ 2 for YMn 0.95 Fe 0.05 O 3 on to Γ 2 for YMn 0.9 Fe 0.1 O 3 , as the maiden compositional analogue of spinreorientation; its occurrence in temperature-domain already reported for several manganites.Moreover, while the large thermal isostructural changes observed above T N are subdued in the ordered state, small alterations by the applied 5T-field are relatively uniform across, confirming strong magneto-elastic nature of the system. Decrease of the ordered magnetic moment (µ ord ) and planar magnetic frustration noted with Fe-doping is enhanced by the applied field; apparently through canting.Keywords: Multiferroics, Magneto-elasticity, Frustrated Antiferromagnet, Neutron Diffraction. PACS: 75.50.Ee, 75.85.+t , 61.05.fm, 75.75
2Materials that possess coexistent magnetic and electrical orderings in single phase are known as Multiferroics. 1 Hexagonal YMnO 3 is a member of their special class known as geometrically frustrated multiferroics, and is one of the most intensively studied h-RMnO 3 . 2 It undergoes ferroelectric (FE) transition at T C ~ 900K and antiferromagnetic (AFM) ordering at T N ~70K. [3][4] The crystal structure of h-YMnO 3 consists of alternating layers of MnO 5 trigonal bipyramids. These bipyramids (in trimer-combinations, sharing a common planar Oxygen) are corner-linked in the abplane to form a triangular lattice, and are separated from one another along the c-axis by the planes of Y-ions. 5 The geometric effect of buckling of the trimerized MnO5-bipyramids is accompanied by the inversion-symmetry-breaking displacements of Y-layers, originating the ferroelectric polarization. 6 Regarding the magnetic structure, below T N the Mn 3+ moments order in the a-b plane, and form a 2D non-collinear spin structure, characterized by an angle of 120 o between the neighbouring spins. [7][8][9] Consequent to the 2D magnetism and triangular lattice, the magnetic structure of YMnO 3 is frustrated, characterized by the frustration factor f = |Θ CW |/T N , found to be as large as 7.8 for YMnO 3 . 10 Here, Θ CW is the (negative) intercept on the temperature-axis of the (interpolated) high-temperature T-linear (Curie-Weiss) inverse susceptibility of the independent-spins. The antiferromagnetic (AFM) order is governed by the in-plane Mn-O-Mn super-exchange interaction, whereas the Mn-O-O-Mn supersuper-exchange interaction between the stacked triangular planes is about two order of magnitude weaker. This weak inter-layer (z=0 and z=1/2), 4,7,11 configuration is the one that differentiates among the several magnetic structures proposed f...