Evolution of magnetic and crystal structures in the multiferroic FeTe2O5Br

Neutron diffraction and nuclear quadrupole resonance (NQR) measurements were employed to investigate magnetic order in the non-ferroelectric phase preceding the low-temperature multiferroic state in FeTe2O5Br. Refnement of the neutron diffraction data and simulations of 79,81Br NQR spectra reveal that the incommensurate magnetic ordering in the non-ferroelectric state comprises amplitude-modulated magnetic moments, similarly as in the multiferroic state. The two ordered states differ in the orientation of the magnetic moments and phase shifts between modulation waves. Surprisingly, all symmetry restrictions for the electric polarization are absent in both states. The different ferroelectric responses of the two states are thus argued to arise from the differences in the phase shifts between certain modulation waves, which cancel out in the non-ferrolectric state.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures including appendix, published in PR

Persistent spin dynamics intrinsic to amplitude-modulated long-range magnetic order

An incommensurate elliptical helical magnetic structure in the frustrated coupled-spin-chain system FeTe2O5Br is surprisingly found to persist down to 53(3) mK (T/T_N ~ 1/200), according to neutron scattering and muon spin relaxation. In this state, finite spin fluctuations at T -> 0 are evidenced by muon depolarization, which is in agreement with specific-heat data indicating the presence of both gapless and gapped excitations. We thus show that the amplitude-modulated magnetic order intrinsically accommodates contradictory persistent spin dynamics and long-range order and can serve as a model structure to investigate their coexistence.Comment: 5 pages + supplementar

Magnetism in systems with various dimensionality: A comparison between Fe and Co

A systematic ab initio study is performed for the spin and orbital moments and for the validity of the sum rules for x-ray magnetic circular dichroism for Fe systems with various dimensionality (bulk, Pt-supported monolayers and monatomic wires, free-standing monolayers and monatomic wires). Qualitatively, the results are similar to those for the respective Co systems, with the main difference that for the monatomic Fe wires the term in the spin sum rule is much larger than for the Co wires. The spin and orbital moments induced in the Pt substrate are also discussed.Comment: 4 page

Orbital contribution to the magnetic properties of nanowires: Is the orbital polarization ansatz justified?

We show that considerable orbital magnetic moments and magneto-crystalline anisotropy energies are obtained for a Fe monatomic wire described in a tight-binding method with intra-atomic electronic interactions treated in a full Hartree Fock (HF) decoupling scheme. Even-though the use of the orbital polarization ansatz with simplified Hamiltonians leads to fairly good results when the spin magnetization is saturated this is not the case of unsaturated systems. We conclude that the full HF scheme is necessary to investigate low dimensional systems

Novel Ba-hexaferrite structural variations stabilized on the nanoscale as building blocks for epitaxial bi-magnetic hard/soft sandwiched maghemite/hexaferrite/maghemite nanoplatelets with out-of-plane easy axis and enhanced magnetization

Atomic-resolution scanning-transmission electron microscopy showed that barium hexaferrite (BHF) nanoplatelets display a distinct structure, which represents a novel structural variation of hexaferrites stabilized on the nanoscale. The structure can be presented in terms of two alternating structural blocks stacked across the nanoplatelet: a hexagonal (BaFeO) R block and a cubic (FeO) spinel S block. The structure of the BHF nanoplatelets comprises only two, or rarely three, R blocks and always terminates at the basal surfaces with the full S blocks. The structure of a vast majority of the nanoplatelets can be described with a SR∗S∗RS stacking order, corresponding to a BaFeO composition. The nanoplatelets display a large, uniaxial magnetic anisotropy with the easy axis perpendicular to the platelet, which is a crucial property enabling different novel applications based on aligning the nanoplatelets with applied magnetic fields. However, the BHF nanoplatelets exhibit a modest saturation magnetization, M, of just over 30 emu g. Given the cubic S block termination of the platelets, layers of maghemite, γ-FeO, (M), with a cubic spinel structure, can be easily grown epitaxially on the surfaces of the platelets, forming a sandwiched M/BHF/M platelet structure. The exchange-coupled composite nanoplatelets exhibit a remarkably uniform structure, with an enhanced M of more than 50 emu g while essentially maintaining the out-of-plane easy axis. The enhanced M could pave the way for their use in diverse platelet-based magnetic applications

Anisotropy of the orbital methods and the magnetic dipole term TzT_z in CrO2{\rm CrO_2}: An {\it ab-initio} studt

A systematic study is performed by the {\it ab-initio} density functional theory of the anisotropy of the orbital moments $$and the magnetic dipole term$$ in bulk ${\rm CrO_2}$. Two different band-structure techniques are used (FLAPW and LMTO-ASA), and the electronic correlations are treated by the local-spin-density approximation (LSDA), the LSDA+ orbital polarization method, and the LSDA+$U$ method. The calculated anisotropies of $$and$$ are very large compared to Fe, Ni and Co but still a factor of 5 and 2 smaller than the anisotropies obtained from a recently suggested analysis of the X-ray magnetic circular dichroism spectra for a thick layer of ${\rm CrO_2}$