Spin reorientation transition in nanoscale multiferroic PrFeO3 and its band structure calculation

The synthesis of a nano-dimensional cluster of PrFeO3 orthoferrite with interesting tunable characteristics is the principal objective of this work. We document a very simple and improved co-precipitation method to synthesize nanoparticles of the desired dimension of rare earth substituted orthoferrite PrFeO3. The structural distortion is analyzed with Powder X-ray diffraction, which explores a distorted perovskite crystallized ferrite with space group Pbnm (62). The electrical behaviour of the prepared sample is investigated in a frequency range of 50 Hz to 5 MHz at different temperatures. A shift in the dielectric behaviour is noticed at about 250 °C. The morphological structure of the sample explored with High Resolution Transmission Electron Microscope (HRTEM), portraits a nano clustered structure. The magnetic properties of PrFeO3 are observed with Vibrating Sample Magnetometer (VSM) at 20 K and 300 K. A Very interesting change in magnetization is noticed at about 172 K–200 K. The effect of temperature on magnetic properties of PrFeO3 is reportedly due to the spin reorientation transition from Γ2 →Γ4 at TSR ≈ 172 K–200 K temperature range. The electronic band structure of nanoscale PrFeO3 with spin up and spin down states of antiferromagnetic nature is reported. PrFeO3 also exhibit multiferroic properties. •Structural Rietveld refinement for nano PrFeO3 is carried out by GSAS II.•Our article reports the band structure calculation of AFM spin up and spin down states of nano PrFeO3.•Spin reorientation transition in the PrFeO3 is clearly explained as function of temperature.•A shift is noticed, in the dielectric constant of the prepared PrFeO3 sample at 250 °C.•Anti-ferromagnetic ordering in the nanoscale PrFeO3 is explained with Dzyaloshinskii – Moriya (DM) interaction.