Modulation of Jahn-Teller effect on magnetization and spontaneous electric polarization of CuFeO2

CuFe0.99Mn0.01O2 and CuFe0.99Co0.01O2 single crystal samples are grown by a floating zone technique and their magnetization and spontaneous electric polarization have been investigated. Similarly with pure CuFeO2, an obviously anisotropic magnetization and spontaneous electric polarization were observed in the both doped samples, and their phase transition critical fields and temperatures are directly doping ion dependent. Considering the different d-shell configuration and ionic size between Mn3+, Co3+ and Fe3+ ions, in which the Mn3+ ion with Jahn-Teller (J-T) effect has different distortion on the geometry frustration from both of Fe3+ and Co3+ ion. Since for Mn3+ ion, the orbital splitting results from the low-symmetry J-T distortion in a crystal-field environment leads to a distorted MnO6 octahedron, which different from undistorted FeO6 and CoO6 octahedrons. The strain between distorted and undistorted octahedrons produces different effects on the spin reorientation transition and spontaneous electric polarization. Although the pure CuFeO2 has a very strong and robust frustration, the presence of the strain due to the random distribution of distorted MnO6 octahedron and undistorted CoO6 (FeO6) octahedrons leads to its spin reorientation transitions and spontaneous electric polarization different from CuFeO2.