Ground State of a Two-Sublattice Anisotropic Ferromagnet in a Magnetic Field

The ground state of a classical two-sublattice ferromagnet with the noncollinear single-ion anisotropy axes of the sublattices and the antisymmetric and anisotropic symmetric exchanges between them has been investigated in a magnetic field applied along the hard magnetization directions in the crystal. The threshold relations for the parameters of the anisotropic interactions have been obtained, which determine the choice of the ground state among the three possible magnetic phases. Depending on the ground state type and the field direction, the transition between the phases is a first- or second-order phase transition. The antisymmetric exchange value above which the reorientation between the noncollinear phases ends with a second-order transition depends on the angle between the local easy axes and the single-ion anisotropy value. Field dependences of the magnetization and susceptibility for different ground states have been calculated. A comparison with the results of the magnetic measurements in the highly anisotropic PbMnBO4 ferromagnet has been made.