1/3 magnetization plateau and frustrated ferrimagnetism in a sodium iron phosphite
Abstract
The sodium-iron phosphite NaFe3(HPO3)2(H2PO3)6 is studied by ac-magnetic susceptibility, pulsed-field magnetization, specific heat, and high-frequency electron spin resonance (HF-ESR) measurements combined with Mössbauer spectroscopy and density-functional calculations. We show that this compound develops ferrimagnetic order below TC = 9.5 K and reveals a magnetization plateau at 1/3-saturation. The plateau extends to Bc ~ 8 T, whereas above Bc the magnetization increases linearly until reaching saturation at Bs ~ 27 T. The Mössbauer spectroscopy reveals two magnetically non-equivalent iron sites with the 2:1 ratio. The HF-ESR spectra are consistent with a two-sublattice ferrimagnet and additionally pinpoint weak magnetic anisotropy as well as short-range spin order that persists well above TC. The ferrimagnetic order in the title compound is stabilized by a network of purely antiferromagnetic exchange interactions. The spin lattice comprises layers coinciding with the crystallographic (10-1) planes, with stronger couplings Ji ~ 1.5 K within the layers and weaker couplings Ji = 0.3−0.4 K between the layers. Both intralayer and interlayer couplings are frustrated. The ensuing ferrimagnetic order arises from a subtle interplay of the frustrated but nonequivalent exchange couplings.
Citation
Vasiliev , A , Volkova , O , Zvereva , E , Ovchenkov , E , Munao' , I , Clark , L M , Lightfoot , P , Vavilova , E , Kamusella , S , Klaus , H , Werner , J , Koo , C , Klingeler , R & Tsirlin , A 2016 , ' 1/3 magnetization plateau and frustrated ferrimagnetism in a sodium iron phosphite ' , Physical Review. B, Condensed matter and materials physics , vol. 93 , no. 13 , 134401 . https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.93.134401
Publication
Physical Review. B, Condensed matter and materials physics
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
1098-0121Type
Journal article
Rights
© 2016 American Physical Society. This work is made available online in accordance with the publisher’s policies. This is the author created, accepted version manuscript following peer review and may differ slightly from the final published version. The final published version of this work is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.93.134401 © 2016 American Physical Society. This work is made available online in accordance with the publisher’s policies. This is the author created, accepted version manuscript following peer review and may differ slightly from the final published version. The final published version of this work is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.93.134401
Description
AT was supported by the Federal Ministry for Education and Research through the Sofja Kovalevskaya Award of Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. This work was supported in part by Russian Foundation for Basic Research grants 14-02-00111, 14-02-00245, 16-02-00021, from the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation in the framework of Increase Competitiveness Program of NUST «MISiS» (№ К2-2015-075 and № K4-2015-020) and by Act 211 of the Government of Russian Federation, agreement № 02.A03.21.0006. EAZ, JW and RK acknowledge support by the Excellence Initiative of the German Federal Government and States. PL thanks EPSRC (EP/K503162/1) for partial support of a studentship to IM and the Leverhulme Trust for the award of a post-doctoral fellowship (RPG-2013-343) to LC. SK is grateful for the funding by SSP1458 of the DFG.Collections
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