We carried out detailed studies of the magnetic structure, magnetoelastic coupling, and thermal properties of EuCrO3 nano-powders from room temperature to liquid helium temperature. Our neutron powder diffraction and X-ray powder diffraction measurements provide precise atomic positions of all atoms in the cell, especially for the light oxygen atoms. The low-temperature neutron powder diffraction data revealed extra Bragg peaks of magnetic origin which can be attributed to a Gx antiferromagnetic structure with an ordered moment of ∼ 2.4 μB consistent with the 3d3 electronic configuration of the Cr3+ cations. Apart from previously reported antiferromagnetic and ferromagnetic transitions in EuCrO3 at low temperatures, we also observed an anomaly at about 100 K. This anomaly was observed in temperature dependence of sample's, lattice parameters, thermal expansion, Raman spectroscopy, permittivity and conductance measurements. This anomaly is attributed to the magnetoelastic distortion in the EuCrO3 crystal.
@article{arxiv.1604.01712,
title = {Magnetic structure, magnetoelastic coupling, and thermal properties of EuCrO$_3$ nano-powders},
author = {M. Taheri and F. S. Razavi and Z. Yamani and R. Flacau and P. G. Reuvekamp and A. Schulz and R. K. Kremer},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1604.01712},
year = {2016}
}