Magnetic properties of hexagonal YbFeO$_{\mathrm{3}}$ thin film

We have synthesized epitaxial single crystal thin films of multiferroic hexagonal YbFeO3 (0001) on YSZ (111) substrates using Pulsed Laser Deposition. In-plane XRD and RHEED study confirms the existence of six-fold symmetry in YbFeO$_{\mathrm{3}}$ thin films, consistent with the proposed hexagonal structure. The epitaxial orientation is found to be $h$-YbFeO$_{\mathrm{3\thinspace }}$(100)\textbar \textbar YSZ(11-2). We have studied magnetic properties of $h$-YbFeO$_{\mathrm{3}}$/YSZ thin films using SQUID, neutron diffraction and X-ray Circular Magnetic Dichroism (XMCD). SQUID study of $h$-YbFeO$_{\mathrm{3}}$/YSZ thin films show emergence of out-of-plane magnetic moment at \textasciitilde 140 K, possibly due to spin canting resulting from Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction. This ferromagnetic transition is consistent with our temperature dependent neutron diffraction study where appearance of the forbidden (purely magnetic) (101) peak marks a magnetic transition around \textasciitilde 150 K while the intensity of the nuclear (144) peak remains unaltered. In addition, SQUID and XMCD studies at low temperatures clearly indicate that \textit{Yb}$^{3+}$ ions carry a much lower magnetic moment than the previously reported values.