Structural and Magnetic Properties of Gd doped YCrO3

Polycrystalline Gd-doped YCrO3 ceramic samples (Y1-xGdxCrO3, x = 0.0, 0.3, and 0.5) are studied to understand the effect of Gd substitution on the structure and magnetic properties. Samples are subsequently characterized by powder X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, and magnetometry. XRD data suggest an orthorhombic structure for both pristine and Gd doped sample with Pnma space group. Rietveld refinement of the X-ray data indicates an increase in the unit cell dimensions due to size effect with increase in Gd concentration. With Gd doping, Raman modes due to CrO6 bending and in-plane O2 stretching broaden and Raman mode frequencies shifts to lower energies consistent with the X-ray diffraction data. The magnetic study shows that the magnetization at the lowest temperature increases with the increase of Gd content. When Gd doped at the Y-site, a temperature corresponds to the zero magnetization (M = 0) arises, assigned as T-comp in addition to PM-AFM transition temperature (T-N). With Gd concentration, the value of T-N increases while the value of T-comp decrease.