Elastic behavior of YMnO3 and ErMnO3 manganites

The manganite oxides, YMnO3 and ErMnO3 having hexagonal structures were prepared by the solid state reaction method. After characterizing these materials by studying their various physical properties such as lattice parameters, X-ray density, bulk density etc., ultrasonic velocity measurements were carried out over a temperature range 80-300 K to investigate their elastic behavior. As the materials are porous, the measured elastic moduli were corrected to zero porosity. Using the room temperature elastic moduli, Debye temperature values of both the manganites have also been obtained. Surprisingly it has been found that the Young's moduli of both the materials increase continuously with decreasing temperature. A qualitative explanation for the observed behavior is offered.