Regular Article

Magnetic and dielectric properties of pure and ion doped RCrO₃ nanoparticles

¹ University of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geodesy, Faculty of Hydrotechnics, Department of Physics, 1, Hristo Smirnenski Blvd., 1046 Sofia, Bulgaria
² University of Forestry, Faculty of Forest Industry, 10, Kl. Ohridsky Blvd., 1756 Sofia, Bulgaria
³ University of Sofia, Department of Physics, 5 J. Bouchier Blvd., 1164 Sofia, Bulgaria

^a e-mail: julia@phys.uni-sofia.bg

Received: 26 February 2019
Received in final form: 19 March 2019
Published online: 20 May 2019

Abstract

Using a microscopic model and the Green’s function technique the magnetic and dielectric properties of YCrO₃ and GdCrO₃ nanoparticles (NPs) are studied and compared with the bulk properties. Due to different surface exchange interaction constants the magnetization in YCrO₃ increases whereas in GdCrO₃ decreases with decreasing particle size. The size dependence of the coercive field in GdCrO₃ NPs is also discussed. The bulk dielectric constant ϵ′ in YCrO₃ is smaller than that in NPs, whereas in GdCrO₃ is observed the opposite behavior. The magnetic field influences ϵ′ in YCrO₃ NPs which is an indirect evidence for a strong magnetoelectric coupling. The effects of ion doping on ϵ′ are also studied.