Mechanical Activation and Cation Site Disorder in Mgal2o4

The synthesis and crystallographic site occupancy were investigated for MgAl2O4 with and without mechanical activation of the precursor powders. Heating to 1200 °C or higher resulted in the formation of a single spinel phase regardless of whether the powders were mechanically activated or not. Neutron diffraction analysis was used to determine cation site occupancy and revealed that mechanical activation resulted in a lower degree of cation site inversion compared to the nonactivated materials, which indicated that the powders were closer to thermodynamic equilibrium. This is the first study to characterize the effects of mechanical activation on crystallographic site occupancy in magnesium aluminate spinel using neutron diffraction

Mechanical Activation and Cation Site Disorder in MgAl2O4

The synthesis and crystallographic site occupancy were investigated for MgAl2O4 with and without mechanical activation of the precursor powders. Heating to 1200 °C or higher resulted in the formation of a single spinel phase regardless of whether the powders were mechanically activated or not. Neutron diffraction analysis was used to determine cation site occupancy and revealed that mechanical activation resulted in a lower degree of cation site inversion compared to the nonactivated materials, which indicated that the powders were closer to thermodynamic equilibrium. This is the first study to characterize the effects of mechanical activation on crystallographic site occupancy in magnesium aluminate spinel using neutron diffraction. © 2022 by the authors

Ferrimagnetic 120∘^\circ magnetic structure in Cu2OSO4

We report magnetic properties of a 3d$^9$ (Cu$^{2+}$) magnetic insulator Cu2OSO4 measured on both powder and single crystal. The magnetic atoms of this compound form layers, whose geometry can be described either as a system of chains coupled through dimers or as a Kagom\'e lattice where every 3rd spin is replaced by a dimer. Specific heat and DC-susceptibility show a magnetic transition at 20 K, which is also confirmed by neutron scattering. Magnetic entropy extracted from the specific heat data is consistent with a $S=1/2$ degree of freedom per Cu$^{2+}$, and so is the effective moment extracted from DC-susceptibility. The ground state has been identified by means of neutron diffraction on both powder and single crystal and corresponds to a $\sim120$ degree spin structure in which ferromagnetic intra-dimer alignment results in a net ferrimagnetic moment. No evidence is found for a change in lattice symmetry down to 2 K. Our results suggest that \sample \ represents a new type of model lattice with frustrated interactions where interplay between magnetic order, thermal and quantum fluctuations can be explored.Comment: Published in Physical Review

Quantum critical behavior of the hyperkagome magnet Mn3CoSi

β-Mn-type family alloys Mn3TX (T = Co, Rh, and Ir; X = Si and Ge) have a three-dimensional antiferromagnetic (AF) corner-shared triangular network, i.e., the hyperkagome lattice. The antiferromagnet Mn3RhSi shows magnetic short-range order over a wide temperature range of approximately 500 K above the Néel temperature TN of 190 K. In this family of compounds, as the lattice parameter decreases, the long-range magnetic ordering temperature decreases. Mn3CoSi has the smallest lattice parameter and the lowest TN in the family. The quantum critical point (QCP) from AF to the quantum paramagnetic state is expected near a cubic lattice parameter of 6.15 Å. Although the Néel temperature of Mn3CoSi is only 140 K, the emergence of the quantum critical behavior in Mn3CoSi is discussed. We study how the magnetic short-range order appears in Mn3CoSi by using neutron scattering, μSR, and bulk characterization such as specific heat capacity. According to the results, the neutron scattering intensity of the magnetic short-range order in Mn3CoSi does not change much at low temperatures from that of Mn3RhSi, although the μSR short-range order temperature of Mn3CoSi is largely suppressed to 240 K from that of Mn3RhSi. Correspondingly, the volume fraction of the magnetic short-range order regions, as shown by the initial asymmetry drop ratio of μSR above TN, also becomes small. Instead, the electronic-specific heat coefficient γ of Mn3CoSi is the largest in this Mn3T Si system, possibly due to the low-energy spin fluctuation near the quantum critical point

Neutron diffraction from aligned stacks of lipid bilayers using the WAND instrument

© Drew Marquardt et al. 2018 Neutron diffraction from aligned stacks of lipid bilayers is examined using the Wide-Angle Neutron Diffractometer (WAND), located at the High Flux Isotope Reactor, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA. Data were collected at different levels of hydration and neutron contrast by varying the relative humidity (RH) and H2O/D2O ratio from multi-bilayers of dioleoylphosphatidylcholine and sunflower phosphatidylcholine extract aligned on single-crystal silicon substrates. This work highlights the capabilites of a newly fabricated sample hydration cell, which allows the lipid bilayers to be hydrated with varying H/D ratios from the RH generated by saturated salt solutions, and also demonstrates WAND\u27s capability as an instrument suitable for the study of aligned lipid multi-bilayers

CCDC 1567344: Experimental Crystal Structure Determination

Related Article: Liurukara D. Sanjeewa, Vasile O. Garlea, Michael A. McGuire, Matthias Frontzek, Colin D. McMillen, Kyle Fulle, Joseph W. Kolis|2017|Inorg.Chem.|56|14842|doi:10.1021/acs.inorgchem.7b02024,An entry from the Cambridge Structural Database, the world’s repository for small molecule crystal structures. The entry contains experimental data from a crystal diffraction study. The deposited dataset for this entry is freely available from the CCDC and typically includes 3D coordinates, cell parameters, space group, experimental conditions and quality measures

CCDC 1567343: Experimental Crystal Structure Determination

Related Article: Liurukara D. Sanjeewa, Vasile O. Garlea, Michael A. McGuire, Matthias Frontzek, Colin D. McMillen, Kyle Fulle, Joseph W. Kolis|2017|Inorg.Chem.|56|14842|doi:10.1021/acs.inorgchem.7b02024,An entry from the Cambridge Structural Database, the world’s repository for small molecule crystal structures. The entry contains experimental data from a crystal diffraction study. The deposited dataset for this entry is freely available from the CCDC and typically includes 3D coordinates, cell parameters, space group, experimental conditions and quality measures