PHYSICS OF THE SOLID STATE

VOLUME 41, NUMBER 10

OCTOBER 1999

Field-induced magnetic phase transitions in the YafetKittel model

N. P. Kolmakova, S. A. Kolonogi, and M. Yu. Nekrasova
Bryansk State Technical University, 241035 Bryansk, Russia

R. Z. Levitin
M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University, 119899 Moscow, Russia

Submitted December 18, 1998 Fiz. Tverd. Tela St. Petersburg 41, 17971799 October 1999 The YafetKittel model for a two-sublattice ferrimagnet with an antiferromagnetic exchange interaction in one of the sublattices was developed to describe magnetic-eld-induced phase transitions in the isotropic and Ising cases. Depending on the relative values of the exchange parameters of the inter-sublattice interaction and the intra-sublattice interaction in the isotropic case, two types of magnetic phase diagrams with two types of second-order phase transitions are possible: to the noncollinear phase and to the spin-ip phase, and, in the Ising case, three types of magnetic phase diagrams with rst-order phase transitions are possible. 1999 American Institute of Physics. S1063-78349901610-X

1. In a two-sublattice ferrimagnet with stable sublattices, an external magnetic eld induces a transition from the ferrimagnetic state with antiparallel arrangement of the magnetic moments of the sublattices to the ferromagnetic state with parallel magnetic moments via two second-order phase transitions through a noncollinear phase or, in the presence of a large enough uniaxial magnetic anisotropy, via one rstorder transition. If there exists an antiferromagnetic exchange interaction inside one of the sublattices of the ferrimagnet, thanks to which that sublattice can decay into two equivalent sublattices, then the magnetic phase diagrams and the magnetization curves become substantially more complicated. The rst attempt to describe magnetic systems of such type was the YafetKittel model1 see also Ref. 2, which considers a two-sublattice ferrimagnet with an antiferromagnetic exchange interaction in each sublattice. In the molecular eld approximation the possible magnetic states of such a system were calculated in the absence of an external magnetic eld in the exchange interaction. The idea of triangular ordering was introduced, which corresponds to an orientation of the magnetic moments of all the sublattices at certain angles with respect to each other, and it was shown that its presence entails the possibility of an increase in the saturation magnetization in the presence of an external magnetic eld even in the limit T 0 K. The YafetKittel theory was developed for ferrites with spinel structure. While still remaining relevant for these compounds, if this theory is developed from the case of spontaneous transitions to transitions induced by an external magnetic eld, it can be used to describe the magnetic properties of many other compounds, including intermetallics with rare earths, e.g., ternaries of the type R Mn2 X 2 , where X Si or Ge. The present paper is dedicated to such a development of the YafetKittel theory. 2. Let us consider the two-sublattice ferrimagnet with an antiferromagnetic exchange interaction inside one of the sublattices, thanks to which that sublattice can decay into two
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equivalent sublattices with magnetic moments m1 and m2 , where m 1 m 2 m . We calculate the magnetic phase diagrams and magnetization curves of such a ferrimagnet in the molecular eld approximation, in which the magnetic moments in a state of thermodynamic equilibrium are assumed to be aligned with the effective elds acting in them. We will analyze the signs and magnitudes of these effective elds and chose the states corresponding to minimum values of the thermodynamic potential for a prescribed value of the external magnetic eld. In the exchange approximation in the absence of magnetic anisotropy the thermodynamic potential can be written in the form J 1 m1 m2 /2 J 2 M m1 /2 J 2 M m2 /2 H m1 m2 M . 1 Here J 1 and J 2 are the parameters of the antiferromagnetic ( J 1 , J 2 0) exchange interaction inside the unstable sublattice and between the sublattices, respectively; M is the magnetic moment of the stable sublattice. We list the phases realized in such a ferrimagnet. There are four of them. Three of them are characterized by parallel orientation of m1 and m2 , which thus form a common sublattice and are similar to the phases of an ordinary ferrimagnet: a ferrimagnetic phase with antiferromagnetic orientation of m1 m2 and M phase A ), a ferromagnetic phase ( F ), and a noncollinear phase ( N ). The fourth and last phase is the triangular phase, and we denote it as C canted. In it the moments m1 and m2 form an angle with the direction of the eld which is given by cos 2HJ2M . 2 J 1m 2

This phase is the initial state of the ferrimagnet for M /2m J 1 / J 2 ; the sign in the denominator is minus if J 1 J 2 and plus if J 1 J 2 . In the opposite case ( M /2m J 1 / J 2 ) the A
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FIG. 1. Magnetic phase diagrams of a ferrimagnet with antiferromagnetic exchange interaction in one of the sublattices isotropic case: for J 1 J 2 a and for J 1 J 2 , i J 2 / J 1 b. The solid lines represent second-order phase transitions.

phase is the initial state. All of the phase transitions are second-order, and the critical elds are given by the following relations: H CA

J 1 m J 2 M /2 J 1 m J 2 M /2

for J 1 J 2 , for J 1 J 2 ;

H C F J 1 m J 2 M /2; H A N J 2 M 2 m /2; H N F J 2 M 2 m /2. 3

FIG. 3. The same as in Fig. 1 for the Ising model for different relative values of the exchange parameters: J 1 2 J 2 a; J 2 J 1 2 J 2 b; J 1 J 2 , i J 2 / J 1 c. The dashed lines represent rst-order phase transitions.

The magnetic phase diagrams are shown in Fig. 1. Figure 2 depicts the most interesting magnetization curve with three second-order phase transitions, which is realized for J 1 J 2

FIG. 2. Schematic magnetization curve in the case of the phase diagram of Fig. 1b for M /2m J 1 / J 2 1/i .

and M /2m J 1 / J 2 . For values of the parameters not satisfying these relations, the magnetization curves contain either one transition C F or two transitions A C F or F N F. 3. Going beyond the limits of the exchange approximation and taking the nite anisotropy of both sublattices into account is a very relevant and interesting problem. We have extracted the results for this situation into a separate paper, and in the present paper consider only the limiting case of an innitely large anisotropy the Ising case. For this case the scalar products of the magnetic moment vectors in the thermodynamic potential 1 should be replaced by products of the projections of the magnetic moments onto the Ising axis since the remaining projections are equal to zero. In this case, the noncollinear and triangular phases cannot be realized, but the ferrimagnetic phase ( A ) and the ferromagnetic phase ( F ) are joined by another collinear phase, in which m1

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and m2 are ordered antiferromagnetically. We denote this phase as AF . In this case three types of phase diagrams are realized, which are shown in Fig. 3 for different relative values of the exchange parameters J 1 and J 2 . All of the phase transitions are rst-order. The magnetization curves are characterized by one or two jumps, which occur at the critical elds H A AF J 2 M J 1 m /2; H AF A
J 1m J 2M m ; 2 m M

H AF F J 2 M J 1 m /2; H F J 2m . 4

Note that the eld of the transition between the A and AF phases depends on which of the phases is the initial one; in formulas 4 the expressions for H A AF and H AF A are different. In the case when the AF phase is the initial phase, the critical eld is a nonlinear function of M and m, as can be seen in the phase diagrams shown in Figs. 3b and 3c. All the remaining critical elds are linear functions of the magnetizations of the sublattices. A peculiarity of the phase transition AF A is the fact that in it not one magnetic moment, as in all the other phase transitions, but two magnetic moments change their orientation, with the total magnetization changing from M to 2 m M . 4. Thus, in this paper, in the effective eld model, we have calculated the magnetic phase diagrams of ferrimagnets with an antiferromagnetic exchange interaction in one of the sublattices for the isotropic and Ising cases. A consideration

of these limiting in the magnetic anisotropy cases is a necessary step in the solution of the problem for a ferrimagnet of such type with arbitrary anisotropy. Ferrimagnets of this type include intermetallic compounds with a rare earth and manganese R Mn2 X 2 , which for some pure and diluted rare earths in certain temperature intervals are characterized by an antiferromagnetic exchange interaction, both inside the manganese subsystem and between the rare-earth and manganese subsystems. The rare-earth subsystem in these compounds should be isotropic for R Gd since Gd3 is an S-ion, and Ising, e.g., for R Dy since such is the single-ion nature of the anisotropy of the Dy3 ion. The available experimental data for the magnetic properties of R Mn2 X 2 compounds Refs. 35 points to the need to consider triangular ordering for the magnetic moments of the rare earth and manganese and, consequently, underscores the urgency of developing the YafetKittel model further along this path. This work was carried out with the support of the Russian Fund for Fundamental Research RFBR Project No. 96-02-16373 and with the joint support of INTASRFBR Project No. 95-641.
Y. Yafet and C. Kittel, Phys. Rev. 87, 290 1952. ka, Physics of Ferrites and Related Magnetic Oxides, Vol. 1 S. Krupic Mir, Moscow, 1976. 3 N. Iwata, K. Hattori, and T. Shigeoka, J. Magn. Magn. Mater. 53, 318 1986. 4 H. Kobayashi, H. Onodera, and H. Yamamoto, J. Magn. Magn. Mater. 79, 76 1989. 5 H. Kobayashi, H. Onodera, Y. Yamaguchi, and H. Yamamoto, Phys. Rev. B 43, 728 1991.
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Translated by Paul F. Schippnick