- Physical Review Journals
All JournalsPhysics Magazine

Physical Review B

Reuse & Permissions

It is not necessary to obtain permission to reuse this article or its components as it is available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI are maintained. Please note that some figures may have been included with permission from other third parties. It is your responsibility to obtain the proper permission from the rights holder directly for these figures.

Export citation

Export citation

Choose format for download:

Download Citation
  • Editors' Suggestion
  • Open Access

Emerging magnetic phase in the orthoferrite HoFeO3 detected by spin Hall magnetoresistance and spin Seebeck effect

M. Basit1, H. G. Giil2, T. W. J. Metzger3, O. Alves Santos1,4, F. Johnson1, P. Pathak1, M. Hehn5, S. Mangin5, A. Brataas2 et al.

A. V. Kimel3 and C. Ciccarelli1,2

PDF

Phys. Rev. B 112, 104432 – Published 22 September, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/q38x-g97c

Abstract

The orthoferrite HoFeO3 exhibits a complex interplay of magnetic interactions between the antiferromagnetically ordered Fe3+ spins and the rare-earth Ho3+ ions. In this work, we combine superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) magnetometry studies with electrical spin transport measurements of the spin Hall magnetoresistance (SMR) and spin Seebeck effect (SSE) on a HoFeO3 single crystal interfaced by a thin Pt layer. Our measurements show that the increase in Ho magnetic susceptibility below the Morin-like spin reorientation transition at 58K affects the magnetic anisotropy of the Fe sublattice and induces a tilting of the easy axis. Below the ordering temperature of Ho at 4K, we observe a rapid increase in the SSE signal associated with the emergence of low-energy magnon modes with the onset of Ho-Ho exchange. These findings demonstrate that spin transport techniques can sensitively probe rare-earth–induced modifications of anisotropy and spin dynamics in complex oxides, opening pathways to electrically access low-energy 4f excitations.

View figure in article

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Article Text

References (33)

  1. A. V. Kimel, A. Kirilyuk, A. Tsvetkov, R. V. Pisarev, and T. Rasing, Laser-induced ultrafast spin reorientation in the antiferromagnet TmFeO3, Nature (London) 429, 850 (2004).
  2. S. Baierl, M. Hohenleutner, T. Kampfrath, A. K.Zvezdin, A. V. Kimel, R. Huber, and R. V. Mikhaylovskiy, Nonlinear spin control by terahertz-driven anisotropy fields, Nat. Photon. 10, 715 (2016).
  3. R. Mikhaylovskiy, E. Hendry, A. Secchi, J. Mentink, M. Eckstein, A. Wu, R. Pisarev, V. Kruglyak, M. Katsnelson, T. Rasing, and A. Kimel, Ultrafast optical modification of exchange interactions in iron oxides, Nat. Commun. 6, 8190 (2015).
  4. J.-H. Lee, Y. K. Jeong, J. H. Park, M.-A. Oak, H. M. Jang, J. Y. Son, and J. F. Scott, Spin-canting-induced improper ferroelectricity and spontaneous magnetization reversal in SmFeO3, Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 117201 (2011).
  5. P. Mandal, V. S. Bhadram, Y. Sundarayya, C. Narayana, A. Sundaresan, and C. N. R. Rao, Spin-reorientation, ferroelectricity, and magnetodielectric effect in YFe1−xMnxO3(0.1≤x≤0.40), Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 137202 (2011).
  6. U. Chowdhury, S. Goswami, D. Bhattacharya, J. Ghosh, S. Basu, and S. Neogi, Room temperature multiferroicity in orthorhombic LuFeO3, Appl. Phys. Lett. 105, 052911 (2014).
  7. K. Dey, A. Indra, S. Mukherjee, S. Majumdar, J. Strempfer, O. Fabelo, E. Mossou, T. Chatterji, and S. Giri, Natural ferroelectric order near ambient temperature in the orthoferrite HoFeO3, Phys. Rev. B 100, 214432 (2019).
  8. Y. Liu, B. Chen, Y. Hamasaki, L. Gong, H. Ohta, and T. Katayama, Magnetic phase transition-induced modulation of ferroelectric properties in hexagonal RFeO3 (R = Tb and Ho), ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 16, 17832 (2024).
  9. M. A. Khaled, J. Ruvalcaba, T. Cordova-Fraga, D. C. Arnold, N. Jaouen, P. Ohresser, M. Jouiad, K. Hoummada, B. Dkhil, M. El Marssi, and H. Bouyanfif, Strain engineering of the magnetic anisotropy and magnetic moment in NdFeO3 epitaxial thin films, Phys. Rev. Mater. 6, 064412 (2022).
  10. A. A. Wagh, P. Garg, A. Haldar, K. Mallick, T. Chakraborty, S. Elizabeth, and P. S. A. Kumar, Probing magnetic anisotropy and spin-reorientation transition in the three-dimensional antiferromagnet Ho0.5Dy0.5FeO3|Pt using spin Hall magnetoresistance, Phys. Rev. B 106, 104426 (2022).
  11. G. P. Vorob'ev, A. M. Kadomtseva, I. B. Krynetkii, and A. A. Mukhin, Unusual nature of spin reorientation in HoFeO3, Zh. Eksp. Teor. Fiz. 95, 1049 (1989).
  12. D. Afanasiev, B. A. Ivanov, R. V. Pisarev, A. Kirilyuk, T. Rasing, and A. V. Kimel, Femtosecond single-shot imaging and control of a laser-induced first-order phase transition in HoFeO3, J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 29, 224003 (2017).
  13. K. P. Belov, A. K. Zvezdin, A. M. Kadomtseva, and R. Z. Levitin, Spin-reorientation transitions in rare-earth magnets, Soviet Physics Uspekhi 19, 574 (1976).
  14. A. Ovsyanikov, I. Zobkalo, W. Schmidt, S. Barilo, S. Guretskii, and V. Hutanu, Neutron inelastic scattering study of rare-earth orthoferrite HoFeO3, J. Magn. Magn. Mater. 507, 166855 (2020).
  15. T. Chatterji, M. Meven, and P. J. Brown, Temperature evolution of magnetic structure of HoFeO3 by single crystal neutron diffraction, AIP Adv. 7, 045106 (2017).
  16. M. Shao, S. Cao, Y. Wang, S. Yuan, B. Kang, and J. Zhang, Large magnetocaloric effect in HoFeO3 single crystal, Solid State Commun. 152, 947 (2012).
  17. O. Nikolov, T. Ruskov, G. P. Vorobyov, A. M. Kadomtseva, and I. B. Krynetskii, A new mechanism of the spin reorientations in HoFeO3, Hyperfine Interact. 54, 623 (1990).
  18. A. A. Meshcheryakov, A. R. Safin, D. V. Kalyabin, S. A. Nikitov, A. M. Mednikov, D. A. Frolov, and A. I. Kirilyuk, Temperature tunable oscillator of THz-frequency signals based on the orthoferrite/heavy metal heterostructure, J. Phys. D 54, 195001 (2021).
  19. A. Bhattacharjee, K. Saito, and M. Sorai, Heat capacity and magnetic phase transitions of rare-earth orthoferrite HoFeO3, J. Phys. Chem. Solids 63, 569 (2002).
  20. M. Shao, S. Cao, Y. Wang, S. Yuan, B. Kang, J. Zhang, A. Wu, and J. Xu, Single crystal growth, magnetic properties and schottky anomaly of HoFeO3 orthoferrite, J. Cryst. Growth 318, 947 (2011).
  21. O. Nikolov, I. Hall, and K. W. Godfrey, A mossbauer study of temperature-driven spin reorientations in Dy-HoFeO3, J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 7, 4949 (1995).
  22. A. Ovsianikov, O. Usmanov, I. Zobkalo, and V. Hutanu, Magnetic phase diagram of HoFeO3 by neutron diffraction, J. Magn. Magn. Mater. 557, 169431 (2022).
  23. G. Grosso and G. P. Parravicini, Solid State Physics, 2nd ed. (Academic Press, Amsterdam, 2013).
  24. J. Jensen and A. R. Mackintosh, Rare Earth Magnetism: Structures and Excitations (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1991).
  25. S. Geprägs, M. Opel, J. Fischer, O. Gomonay, P. Schwenke, M. Althammer, H. Huebl, and R. Gross, Spin Hall magnetoresistance in antiferromagnetic insulators, J. Appl. Phys. 127, 243902 (2020).
  26. T. Hajiri, L. Baldrati, R. Lebrun, M. Filianina, A. Ross, N. Tanahashi, M. Kuroda, W. L. Gan, T. O. Menteş, F. Genuzio, A. Locatelli, H. Asano, and M. Kläui, Spin structure and spin Hall magnetoresistance of epitaxial thin films of the insulating non-collinear antiferromagnet SmFeO3, J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 31, 445804 (2019).
  27. P. Tang and G. E. W. Bauer, Thermal and coherent spin pumping by noncollinear antiferromagnets, Phys. Rev. Lett. 133, 036701 (2024).
  28. G. A. Stewart, G. N. Iles, R. A. Mole, and Z. Yamani, An inelastic neutron scattering investigation of holmium orthoferrite, J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 35, 025701 (2023).
  29. R. M. White, R. J. Nemanich, and C. Herring, Light scattering from magnetic excitations in orthoferrites, Phys. Rev. B 25, 1822 (1982).
  30. T. G. H. Blank, K. A. Grishunin, and A. V. Kimel, Magneto-optical detection of terahertz cavity magnon-polaritons in Antiferromagnetic HoFeO3, Appl. Phys. Lett. 122, 072402 (2023).
  31. Y. Mukai, H. Hirori, T. Yamamoto, H. Kageyama, and K. Tanaka, Nonlinear magnetization dynamics of antiferromagnetic spin resonance induced by intense terahertz magnetic field, New J. Phys. 18, 013045 (2016).
  32. X. Zeng, X. Fu, D. Wang, X. Xi, J. Zhou, and B. Li, Terahertz time domain spectroscopic investigation of spin reorientation transitions in HoFeO3, Opt. Express 23, 31956 (2015).
  33. C. Ciccarelli, B. Muhammad, H. Giil, T. Metzger, O. Alves Santos, F. Johnson, P. Pathak, M. Hehn, S. Mangin, A. Brataas, and A. Kimel, Research Data supporting “Emerging magnetic phase in the orthoferrite HoFeO3 detected by spin-Hall magnetoresistance and spin Seebeck effect”, Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository (2025), https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.121125.

Outline

Information

Phys. Rev. B 112, 104432– Published 22 September, 2025
  • Received 15 July 2025
  • Revised 3 September 2025
  • Accepted 5 September 2025
Crossmark - Check for updates button
Creative Commons Logo

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

Published by the American Physical Society

Sign In to Your Journals Account

Filter

Filter

Article Lookup

Enter a citation