Scheelite-type HoCrO4 was prepared by treating
the ambient-pressure
zircon-type precursor phase under 8 GPa and 700 K. A long-range antiferromagnetic
phase transition is found to occur at T
N ≈ 23 K due to the spin order of Ho3+ and Cr5+ magnetic ions. However, the antiferromagnetic ground state
is sensitive to an external magnetic field and a moderate field of
about 1.1 T can induce a metamagnetic transition, giving rise to the
presence of a large magnetization up to 8.5 μB/f.u.
at 2 K and 7 T. Considerable linear magnetoelectric effect is observed
in the antiferromagnetic state, while the induced electric polarization
experiences a sharp increase near the critical field of the metamagnetic
transition. Ferromagnetism and ferroelectricity thus rarely coexist
under higher magnetic fields in scheelite-type HoCrO4.
Moreover, a magnetic field also plays an important role in the longitudinal
constriction of HoCrO4, and a significant magnetostrictive
effect with a value of up to 300 ppm is observed at 2 K and 9 T, which
can be attributed to the strong anisotropy of the rare-earth Ho3+ ion. Possible coupling between magnetoelectric and magnetoelastic
effects is discussed.