Nguyen Thi Minh Hien

Raman studies of spin-phonon coupling in hexagonal BaFe12O19

Phonon softening in hexagonal BaFe12O19 single crystal is observed in temperature dependent polarized Raman spectroscopy. The phonon softening is significantly enhanced below ∼80 K, at which the magnetization in a magnetic field along c-axis shows a clear change in the temperature dependence, indicating a magnetic phase transition near 80 K. Possible interpretations of the anomalous temperature dependence of the phonon frequencies–phonon softening behaviors are discussed. The phonon softening would be correlated to local structural and magnetic phase transition in hexagonal BaFe12O19, in which the spin-phonon coupling would have major contribution for the phonon softening. We also discuss that the spin-phonon coupling would be affected by both the spin ordering and the individual phonon vibration in magnetic material.

Resonant A1 phonon and four-magnon Raman scattering in hexagonal HoMnO3 thin film

We present the results of resonant Raman scattering of the A1 phonon at 680 cm−1 and of the four-magnon at 760 cm−1 in hexagonal HoMnO3 thin film. We find that the A1 phonon at 680 cm−1 shows a strong resonance effect near the on-site Mn d–d transition at ~1.7 eV. Our Raman results show that the four-magnon scattering can be selectively excited with red lasers of 647 nm (1.92 eV) and 671 nm (1.85 eV), but are not detectable with green lasers of 532 nm (2.33 eV), indicating that the four-magnon scattering in hexagonal HoMnO3 has an extremely strong resonance effect also near the on-site Mn d–d transition at ~1.7 eV. Furthermore, through the analyses of our study of the resonant four-magnon Raman scattering and earlier studies of the resonant two-magnon Raman scattering, we propose a simple general model for all resonant magnon scattering. Our simple general model predicts a simple method for the investigation of the spin-flipping/spin-wave in magnetic materials, which would have significant impacts on the applications of spintronic devices.

Study of spin-ordering and spin-reorientation transitions in hexagonal manganites through Raman spectroscopy.

Spin-wave (magnon) scattering, when clearly observed by Raman spectroscopy, can be simple and powerful for studying magnetic phase transitions. In this paper, we present how to observe magnon scattering clearly by Raman spectroscopy, then apply the Raman method to study spin-ordering and spin-reorientation transitions of hexagonal manganite single crystal and thin films and compare directly with the results of magnetization measurements. Our results show that by choosing strong resonance condition and appropriate polarization configuration, magnon scattering can be clearly observed, and the temperature dependence of magnon scattering can be simple and powerful quantity for investigating spin-ordering as well as spin-reorientation transitions. Especially, the Raman method would be very helpful for investigating the weak spin-reorientation transitions by selectively probing the magnons in the Mn3+ sublattices, while leaving out the strong effects of paramagnetic moments of the rare earth ions.

Spin exchange interactions in hexagonal manganites RMnO3 (R = Tb, Dy, Ho, Er) epitaxial thin films

We present the results of an optical method of quantitatively estimating the spin exchange interactions in hexagonal manganites RMnO3 (R = Tb, Dy, Ho, Er) epitaxial thin films. The two in-plane (a-b plane) spin exchange integrals J1 (intratrimer Mn-Mn interaction) and J2 (intertrimer Mn-Mn interaction) are deduced from the magnon scattering peak wavenumbers. We found that J2 decreases systematically when the R ionic radius increases, while J1 is nearly independent of R ionic radius, contrary to the expectation in single crystals. We show that the R dependence of J1 could be understood in terms of the stress in the thin films. Our result indicates that the stress has stronger effect on the atomic displacement of the intratrimer Mn-Mn distance than the intertrimer Mn-Mn distance.

Raman study of magnetic phase transitions of hexagonal manganites

Results of Raman studies of magnetic phase transitions of hexagonal LuMnO3 single crystal and HoMnO3 thin films are compared directly with the results of magnetic measurements. Our results show that the temperature dependent Raman study of magnon scattering provides a simple and accurate method for investigating magnetic phase transitions, especially in HoMnO3 thin films. In single crystal, our optical method provides results as good as magnetization measurements.