Magnetocrystalline anisotropy of cementite pseudo single crystal fabricated under a rotating magnetic field

[Display omitted] •The hard and easy axes of the cementite are a-axis and c-axis, respectively.•The observed hard axis is in agreement with that obtained by the an ab initio calculation.•The magnetocrystalline anisotropy energy is obtained to be 334 ± 20 kJ/m3 at 5 K. We have fabricated a pseudo single crystal of cementite under a rotating magnetic field and investigated its easy and hard axes of magnetization, and determined its magnetocrystalline anisotropy energy. The obtained results are as follows: the hard and easy axes of cementite are the a- and c-axes of the orthorhombic structure with the space group Pnma, respectively. The hard axis observed experimentally was in good agreement with that obtained by an ab initio calculation; however, such consistency was not observed for the easy axis. The magnetocrystalline anisotropy energy was determined as 334 ± 20 kJ/m3 at 5 K.