Enhancement of magnetodielectric coupling in 6H-perovskites Ba 3 R Ru 2 O 9 for heavier rare-earth cations ( R = Ho , Tb )
The role of rare-earth ( R ) ions in magnetodielectric (MD) coupling is always intriguing and markedly different for different systems. Although many reports are available concerning this aspect in frustrated 3 d -transition metal oxides, no such reports exist on higher d ( 4 d /5 d )-orbital based systems due to the rare availability of highly insulating 4 d /5 d systems. Here, we systematically investigated the magnetic, dielectric, ferroelectric, and magnetodielectric behavior of the 6H-perovskites Ba 3 R Ru 2 O 9 for different R -ions, namely R = Sm , Tb , and Ho, which magnetically order at 12, 9.5, and 10.2 K, respectively. For R = Tb and Ho, the temperature and magnetic-field-dependent complex dielectric constant traces the magnetic features, which manifests MD coupling in this system. A weak magnetic-field ( H ) induced transition is observed for ~ 30 kOe , which is clearly captured in H -dependent dielectric measurements. No MD coupling is observed for Ba 3 SmRu 2 O 9 . The MD coupling is enhanced by a factor of 3 and 20 times for R = Tb and Ho, respectively, when compared to that of the Nd-counterpart. Here, these results evidence the gradual enhancement of MD coupling with the introduction of heavier R -ions in this series, which is attributed to their larger moment values. Our investigation establishes dominating 4 d (Ru)-4ƒ( R ) magnetic correlation in this series for the heavier R -members.