Multiferroic materials have been the subject of intense study
due to their potential applications in information storage process,
spintronics, multiple-state memories, magnetoelectric sensors,
etc. Recently, ferroelectricity has also been found in some
orthoferrites (RFeO3, R¼Y or rare earth elements) with the
centrosymmetric space group of Pbnm. Orthoferrites have
been extensively studied for their physical properties and potential
applications. Zhou and Goodenough have suggested that
the structure and magnetic properties of RFeO3 are closely rely on
the degree of titling of FeO6 octahedral as well as the Fe–O–Fe
super exchange bond angle. As a typical rare earth orthoferrite,
YFeO3 (YFO) indicates the antiferromagnetic nature with a high
Néel temperature (TN¼640 K) and a high resistivity. The weak
ferromagnetic behavior is generally produced in YFO by an
antisymmetric exchange interaction.
The doping and substituting with different types of magnetic
ions are usually a very useful experimental technique to understand,
modify, and enhance the properties of the compound. The
substitution of manganese by iron is interesting because the Fe3þ
and Mn3þ ions have the same size, so one can not expect dramatic
structural changes. And the same valence state of Mn3þ and Fe3þ
ensures the replacement of Fe3þ ions by Mn3þ ions would not
cause the valence fluctuations. Moreover, the electron configuration
of magnetic active Mn3þ ions is quite different from that of Fe3þ
ions and effective magnetic moments are different for both these
ions. Based on these factors, introduction of Mn3þ ions to Fe site
may cause the distortion of the crystal structure and new magnetic
interactions to YFe0.8Mn0.2O3 (YFM20) ceramics.
Recently, the significance for applications in magnetic field sensors
and magneto-optical data storage devices has been reported about
cation doped YFO. The properties of Y-site substitute with nonmagneticions
on YFO (Y1xLaxFeO3) have also been studied. Ma
et al. has reported that Mn-doped YFeO3 show obvious difference in
dielectric and multiferroic properties. Yuan et al. have proved that
multiferroic properties in Lu-doped YFO at room temperature. And
Shen et al. found that magnetic properties exhibit different changes as
the Mn content increases. However, most of the above researches
focus on the properties of YFe1xAxO3 (A is metal cation) at room
temperature. In the paper, we note that the remarkable physical
properties in YFM20 ceramics at low temperature, we observed that
the signature of spin-glass like phase was presented in YFM20
ceramics.