Magnetic Properties of the Pyrochlores (RE)2V2O7; RE = Tm, Yb, Lu. New Ferro- and Ferrimagnetic Semiconductors

There are few examples in the literature of materials which are simultaneously ferromagnetic and semiconducting. Two recent reports (1,2) indicate that Lu2V2O7 falls into this category. Bazuev (1) also interprets susceptibility data for Yb2V2O7 and Tm2V2O7 as indicative of a ferromagnet with an inflection in the Xm−1 = f(T) curve at T = 190°K. No critical temperatures or saturation moments were reported for any of the compounds. Therefore work was undertaken to augment existing results and clarify the confusion in interpretation of the Yb2V2O7 and Tm2V2O7 data. Some results are shown in Table 1.