Growth-Induced Noncubic Anisotropy Arising from the Tetrahedral Sites in Garnets

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
We have observed noncubic growth‐induced anisotropy in garnets prepared to preclude the mechanism based on rare‐earth ions, such as Eu3Fe5−xGaxO12 with a single rare‐earth ion, or such as Y3−2xCa2xVxFe5−x O12 with only diamagnetic ions on the dodecahedral sites; all samples contain a mixture of constituents on tetrahedral sites. We show that the noncubic anisotropy can be explained by distortion of the local symmetry around tetrahedral ions caused by preferential site ordering among their tetrahedral neighbors. A similar distortion of tetrahedral symmetry by ordering of dodecahedral ions should contribute in mixed rare‐earth garnets.