Phase Transitions in the Anisotropic Ferrimagnetic Ytterbium Iron Garnet
- 1 October 1970
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Physical Society (APS) in Physical Review B
- Vol. 2 (7), 2767-2784
- https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevb.2.2767
Abstract
The thermal and magnetic properties of YbIG in field-induced canted configurations are discussed with emphasis on phase-transition singularities. By using the (for this case, well-justified) mean-field formalism of Wolf and the and tensors of Wickersheim, we calculate properties for applied fields of 0 to 300 kOe and for temperatures from 0 to 30 °K. Complete entropy and magnetic-moment predictions are presented for the field along the [111] and [100] directions. Selected results for specific heat and susceptibility are given for [111], [100], and [314] directions. We also discuss torque curves and variation of level splittings with applied field. Although it is clear that the Wickersheim parameters do not provide an over-all "best fit," the agreement for such data as are available is qualitatively good. Unfortunately, there are few data suitable for comparison with the phase-transition predictions. Four kinds of phase transitions are predicted: (I) ordinary first order, (II) liquid-vapor-like second order, (III) symmetry-affected first order, and (IV) symmetry-affected second order. Of particular interest are the following divergence and near divergence of the specific heat for examples of the second and third types, respectively: (II) ( near °K, kOe along [100]) ; (III) ( °K, kOe along [111]) . A phenomenological theory applicable to all RIG's and perhaps other ferrimagnets describes very well the singularities in thermal-magnetic properties at the phase transitions and also the positions of phase boundaries.
Keywords
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