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Journal of the American Ceramic Society, Vol.96, No.3, 995-1002, 2013
Microstructure and Magnetic Properties of Metastable RFeO3 (R: Rare-earth element) Formed from Undercooled Melt
Containerless levitation technique, where the undercooling can be treated as one of the major thermodynamic parameters, was used to study the influence of oxygen partial pressure (PO2) on the microstructure and physical properties of rare-earth orthoferrites RFeO3 (where R=Rare-earth element) in the PO2 ranges from 105 to 101Pa. The microstructure of the as-solidified samples changed into orthorhombic RFeO3 (o-RFeO3), metastable hexagonal RFeO3 (h-RFeO3), and Fe2+-containing RFe2O4 and a new metastable R3Fe2O7 phases with decreasing PO2. The effect of PO2 on the magnetic properties was indicated as that the saturation magnetization gradually increased for R = La to Yb and decreased for R = Lu with decreasing PO2 due to the formation of metastable and magnetic phases such as Fe3O4 and Fe.