The temperature dependence of eigenfrequencies and intensities of the IR
active modes has been investigated for the antiferromagnetic chromium spinel
compounds CdCr2O4, ZnCr2O4, ZnCr2S4, ZnCr2Se4, and HgCr2S4 by IR spectroscopy
for temperatures from 5 K to 300 K. At the transition into the magnetically
ordered phases, and driven by spin-phonon coupling, most compounds reveal
significant splittings of the phonon modes. This is true for geometrically
frustrated CdCr2O4, and ZnCr2O4, for bond frustrated ZnCr2S4 and for ZnCr2Se4,
which also is bond frustrated, but dominated by ferromagnetic exchange. The
pattern of splitting is different for the different compounds and crucially
depends on the nature of frustration and of the resulting spin order. HgCr2S4,
which is almost ferromagnetic, exhibits no splitting of the eigenfrequencies,
but shows significant shifts due to ferromagnetic spin fluctuations.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figure
