Magnetic anisotropy and ground state of the rare-earth ions in PrMnO3 and NdMnO3

A qualitatively different temperature behavior of the spontaneous weak ferr omagnetic moment along the c-axis and anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility were observed in the PrMnO3 and NdMnO3 single crystals which is determined by anisotropic contributions of Pr3+ and Nd3+ ions. Electron transitions i nside of the ground Pr3+ quasidoublet split by a crystal field and Nd3+ Kra mers doublet split by exchange Mn-Nd field were revealed, respectively, at similar to 14.5 and similar to 14 cm(-1) in submillimeter transmission spec tra and their g-tensor components and crystal field and exchange splitting were determined by fitting the overall experimental data. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.