Anisotropy driven magnetization behavior in Y2CoMnO6 double perovskite

Research in material science constantly strive to look for new materials or improve properties in the existing materials, which can lead to evolution in the devices. Compounds with double perovskite structures are some of the most studied materials for potential technological applications, primarily due to their exceptional flexibility in structure and composition. Among them, Y₂CoMnO₆ stands out due to its potential applicability in the devices as it exhibits multiferroic behavior in the vicinity of liquid nitrogen temperature. However, many conflicting reports in literature pertaining to variation in magnetic and other physical properties have been observed. These variations are majorly caused by choice of initial precursors, synthesis methods and annealing conditions. Here in this report, we emphasized synthesizing the title compound in phase pure form by optimizing synthesis parameters in solid state reaction method. The prepared compound in polycrystalline form was subjected to thorough x-ray and neutron diffraction investigation to ascertain phase purity. Which were further corroborated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Energy Dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and Raman study. Detailed magnetization study on this phase pure Y₂CoMnO₆ compound was carried out. The combined results from temperature dependent bulk magnetization and neutron diffraction study clearly indicate that Y₂CoMnO₆ undergoes ferromagnetic ordering occurring near 80 K. The isothermal magnetization measured below transition temperature depicts existence of significant magneto crystalline anisotropy, evident from the large coercive field ~ 16.5 kOe at 3 K. Anisotropy power-law analysis suggest the value of exponent n ≈ 2.7, which further suggests that anisotropy is uniaxial in nature, which has not been reported earlier for title compound. In addition, Co/Mn antisite disorder (~ 10–12%) was also observed which collectively define the unique magnetic characteristics of Y₂CoMnO₆. The title compound was further characterized for temperature dependent evolution of microscopic parameters viz. bond distances and bond angles, obtained from comprehensive x-ray, neutron diffraction. In this study, optimized synthesis parameters were achieved for obtaining phase pure compound which was thoroughly investigated from perspective of tuning physical and structural properties.