Magnetic properties of La doped SmFeO3

Polycrystalline Sm1−xLaxFeO3 (SLFO, x = 0, 0.05, 0.1 and 0.2) samples were prepared by solid state reaction method. The effects of La ions doping on the structure and magnetic properties of SLFO samples were studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and magnetic characterization (magnetic hysteresis loops and temperature-dependent magnetic susceptibility). La ions could be successfully doped into SLFO up to 20% without phase transformation. By diluting the magnetic Sm ions with this non-magnetic La ions, the magnetic anisotropy energy of SLFO increased first and then followed by dropping, so the exchange bias (EB) field also increased first and then dropped. Temperature induced spin switching can be observed after zero field cooling procedure.