Spin–glass Magnetism in RFeTi2O7 (R=Lu and Tb) Compounds

AbstractThe compounds RFeTi2O7 (R=Lu and Tb) crystallize at room temperature in centrosymmetric orthorhombic space group Pcnb. There are five non-equivalent positions of the iron ions: the two positions, Fe’ and Fe”, in the octahedron consisting of the Fe’ tetrahedron and Fe” five-vertex polyhedron and the three positions, Fe1, Fe2 and Fe3 in the mixed Fe-Ti octahedra [1]. The populations of the mixed Fe-Ti sites are different. The crystal structure features lead to atomic disorder in the distribution of the magnetic ions in this compound. From low temperature heat capacity, magnetization and frequency dependent ac susceptibility we conclude that both compounds undergo a spin glass transition at TSG=4.5 and 6K for R =Lu and Tb, respectively. Since Lu is not magnetic, in RFeTi2O7 the spin glass behavior is caused by the disordered distribution of the magnetic Fe3+ ions in the different crystallographic positions. The substitution of the magnetic and highly anisotropic Tb ion instead of Lu increases TSG because of the additional Tb-Fe exchange interaction, while the critical exponent of the frequency dependence on temperature hardly varies. The spin glass behavior in these crystalline compounds is caused by the presence of competitive interactions that lead to frustration

Magnetic Phase Transitions in the double spin-chains compound LiCu2O2\rm LiCu_2O_2

We report high-resolution x-ray diffraction, muon-spin-rotation spectroscopic and specific heat measurements in the double spin-chains compound $\rm LiCu_2O_2$. The x-ray diffraction results show that the crystal structure of $\rm LiCu_2O_2$ ~is orthorhombic down to T=10K. Anisotropic line-broadening of the diffraction peaks is observed, indicating disorder along the spin chains. Muon spin relaxation and specific heat measurements show that $\rm LiCu_2O_2$ \~undergoes a phase transition to a magnetic ordered state at $\rm T_1\sim24K$. The specific heat data exhibits a second $\rm \lambda$-like peak at $\rm T_2\sim22.5 K$, which increases with increasing magnetic field similarly way to that found in spin-ladder compounds.Comment: 6 pages, 6 fifures, to appear in Physica

Structural properties of Pb3Mn7O15 determined from high-resolution synchrotron powder diffraction

We report on the crystallographic structure of the layered compound Pb3Mn7O15. Previous analysis based on laboratory X-ray data at room temperature gave contradictory results in terms of the description of the unit cell. Motivated by recent magnetic bulk measurements of this system, we re-investigated the chemical structure with high-resolution synchrotron powder diffraction at temperatures between 15 K and 295 K. Our results show that the crystal structure of stoichiometric Pb3Mn7O15 has a pronounced 2-dimensional character and can be described in the orthorhombic space group Pnma.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, 2 table