The magnetic field dependences of birefringence in a NdFe3(BO3)4 single crystal have been measured in the case where the direction of light propagation coincides with the trigonal crystal axis C3 (k∥C3), and the external magnetic field is oriented along the second-order axis C2 (H∥C2). In the temperature range, in which an incommensurate phase exists with the formation of a long-period antiferromagnetic helix, the strongly pronounced jumps in the field dependence of birefringence are revealed and identified as a firstorder spin-orientation phase transition. The phase transition was accompanied by a hysteresis in the field dependences of birefringence. The H−T phase diagram for a NdFe3(BO3)4 single crystal has been plotted in the case where the magnetic field is oriented along the crystal axis C2 (H∥C2).
@article{arxiv.1207.2463,
title = {Magnetooptical Study of Spin-Orientation Phase Transition in $NdFe_3(BO_3)_4$ Single Crystal},
author = {V. A. Bedarev and M. I. Pashchenko and D. N. Merenkov and L. N. Bezmaternykh and V. L. Temerov},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1207.2463},
year = {2012}
}