Comparative study of the magnetic phase diagrams and spin-flop-driven magnetodielectric responses of the pure and Mn3+-doped Pb2Fe2Ge2O9 single crystals

The Pb2Fe2-xMnxGe2O9 (x = 0.43) orthorhombic antiferromagnet single crystals have been synthesized by a modified pseudo-flux technique and their magnetic and magnetodielectric properties have been investigated. It has been established that partial substitution of highly anisotropic Mn3+ ions for iron ones significantly affects the magnetic structure of the crystal. Under magnetization of the crystal along the rhombic b and c axes, magnetization jumps have been detected, which are indicative of the occurrence of orientational transitions identified as first-order ones. No weak ferromagnetism characteristic of the pure crystal in the rhombic a axis direction has been detected. The field dependences of the magnetization for the pure and Mn-doped crystals have been analyzed using the thermodynamic potential that takes into account the crystal symmetry. It has been shown that, in the Mn-substituted crystal, the antiferromagnetic vector in the ground state is parallel to the rhombic b axis; in this state, weak ferromagnetism has not been observed. Under magnetization along the b axis, a conventional spin-flop transition occurs. The orientational transition under magnetization along the c axis has been attributed to the reorientation of the antiferromagnetic vector relative to the a axis with the simultaneous occurrence of a weak ferromagnetic moment along the c axis. Magnetic phase diagrams of the Mn-doped crystal for the magnetic fields H||b and H||c have been built.

In the Mn-doped crystal, at E||c and H||c, the orientational transition-induced magnetodielectric response jump has been detected, which is higher than the jumps observed for the undoped crystal by a factor of 3. The magnetodielectric properties of the pure and Mn-doped crystals have been analyzed using their magnetic phase diagrams.