Mossbauer study of spin-flip phase transition on the Fe3BO6 surface
Kamzin A. S. , Grigor'ev L. A.
The spin-flip phase transition in the skin layer of an antiferromagnetic Fe3B06 bulk crystal with a weak ferromagnetic moment was investigated. The measurements were performed by a Mossbauer method which makes it possible to study simultaneously the surface and volume properties of bulk material. The following features were observed: 1) The first-order spin-flip phase transition observed in the volume of the crystal is accompanied by continuous reversal of spins at the crystal surface and this continuity increases toward the surface; 2) outside the region of the spin-flip phase transition the surface magnetic moments are not directed in the same direction as the moments in the bulk of the crystal. The experimental data agree with the phenomenological theory.