DOE PAGES title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Neutron scattering measurement of crystalline-electric fields in magnesium rare-earth selenide spinels

Abstract

The symmetry of local moments plays a defining role in the nature of exotic ground states stabilized in frustrated magnetic materials. Here, we present inelastic neutron scattering (INS) measurements of the crystal electric field (CEF) excitations in the family of compounds Mg R 2 Se 4 ( R ϵ { Ho , Tm , Yb } ) . These compounds form in the spinel structure, with the rare-earth ions comprising a highly frustrated pyrochlore sublattice. Within the symmetry constraints of this lattice, we fit both the energies and intensities of observed transitions in the INS spectra to determine the most likely CEF Hamiltonian for each material and comment on the ground-state wavefunctions in the local electron picture. In this way, we experimentally confirm MgTm 2 Se 4 has a nonmagnetic ground state, and MgYb 2 Se 4 has effective S = 1 2 spins with g = 5.188 ( 79 ) and g = 0.923 ( 85 ) . The spectrum of MgHo 2 Se 4 indicates a ground-state doublet containing Ising spins with g = 2.72 ( 46 ) , though low-lying CEF levels are also seen at thermally accessible energies E = 0.591 ( 36 ) , 0.945(30), and 2.88(7) meV, which can complicate interpretation. These results are used to comment on measured magnetization data of all compounds and are compared to published results on the material MgEr 2 Se 4 .

Authors:
 [1];  [1];  [1];  [2]; ORCiD logo [3]; ORCiD logo [1]
  1. Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL (United States)
  2. Univ. of Rochester, NY (United States)
  3. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); National Science Foundation (NSF)
OSTI Identifier:
1607070
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC05-00OR22725; DMR-1455264-CAR; 1659598
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Physical Review Materials
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 3; Journal Issue: 11; Journal ID: ISSN 2475-9953
Publisher:
American Physical Society (APS)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; frustrated magnetism; magnestism

Citation Formats

Reig-i-Plessis, D., Cote, A., van Geldern, S., Mayrhofer, R. D., Aczel, Adam A., and MacDougall, G. J. Neutron scattering measurement of crystalline-electric fields in magnesium rare-earth selenide spinels. United States: N. p., 2019. Web. doi:10.1103/PhysRevMaterials.3.114408.
Reig-i-Plessis, D., Cote, A., van Geldern, S., Mayrhofer, R. D., Aczel, Adam A., & MacDougall, G. J. Neutron scattering measurement of crystalline-electric fields in magnesium rare-earth selenide spinels. United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevMaterials.3.114408
Reig-i-Plessis, D., Cote, A., van Geldern, S., Mayrhofer, R. D., Aczel, Adam A., and MacDougall, G. J. Tue . "Neutron scattering measurement of crystalline-electric fields in magnesium rare-earth selenide spinels". United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevMaterials.3.114408. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1607070.
@article{osti_1607070,
title = {Neutron scattering measurement of crystalline-electric fields in magnesium rare-earth selenide spinels},
author = {Reig-i-Plessis, D. and Cote, A. and van Geldern, S. and Mayrhofer, R. D. and Aczel, Adam A. and MacDougall, G. J.},
abstractNote = {The symmetry of local moments plays a defining role in the nature of exotic ground states stabilized in frustrated magnetic materials. Here, we present inelastic neutron scattering (INS) measurements of the crystal electric field (CEF) excitations in the family of compounds MgR2Se4 (Rϵ{Ho,Tm,Yb}). These compounds form in the spinel structure, with the rare-earth ions comprising a highly frustrated pyrochlore sublattice. Within the symmetry constraints of this lattice, we fit both the energies and intensities of observed transitions in the INS spectra to determine the most likely CEF Hamiltonian for each material and comment on the ground-state wavefunctions in the local electron picture. In this way, we experimentally confirm MgTm2Se4 has a nonmagnetic ground state, and MgYb2Se4 has effective S=12 spins with g∥=5.188(79) and g⊥=0.923(85). The spectrum of MgHo2Se4 indicates a ground-state doublet containing Ising spins with g∥=2.72(46), though low-lying CEF levels are also seen at thermally accessible energies E=0.591(36), 0.945(30), and 2.88(7) meV, which can complicate interpretation. These results are used to comment on measured magnetization data of all compounds and are compared to published results on the material MgEr2Se4.},
doi = {10.1103/PhysRevMaterials.3.114408},
journal = {Physical Review Materials},
number = 11,
volume = 3,
place = {United States},
year = {Tue Nov 12 00:00:00 EST 2019},
month = {Tue Nov 12 00:00:00 EST 2019}
}

Journal Article:
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record

Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 4 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

Save / Share:

Works referenced in this record:

Matrix Elements and Operator Equivalents Connected with the Magnetic Properties of Rare Earth Ions
journal, March 1952


Evidence for unidimensional low-energy excitations as the origin of persistent spin dynamics in geometrically frustrated magnets
journal, March 2015


Spin Ice, Fractionalization, and Topological Order
journal, March 2012


Dynamically Induced Frustration as a Route to a Quantum Spin Ice State in Tb 2 Ti 2 O 7 via Virtual Crystal Field Excitations and Quantum Many-Body Effects
journal, April 2007


Frustration and anisotropic exchange in ytterbium magnets with edge-shared octahedra
journal, August 2018


Density-functional calculations for rare-earth atoms and ions
journal, April 1997


Er 2 Ti 2 O 7 : Evidence of quantum order by disorder in a frustrated antiferromagnet
journal, July 2003


Role of the electrostatic model in calculating rare-earth crystal-field parameters
journal, July 1998


Collective dynamics in the Heisenberg pyrochlore antiferromagnet Gd 2 Sn 2 O 7
journal, October 2008


Coupling between electronic and lattice degrees of freedom in 4f-electron systems investigated by inelastic neutron scattering
journal, February 2003


Experimental Insights into Ground-State Selection of Quantum XY Pyrochlores
journal, March 2018


Deviation from the dipole-ice model in the spinel spin-ice candidate MgEr 2 Se 4
journal, April 2019


Recent advances in magnetic structure determination by neutron powder diffraction
journal, October 1993


Neutron scattering studies of the cooperative paramagnet pyrochlore Tb 2 Ti 2 O 7
journal, November 2001


Theory of the bound state between phonons and a CEF excitation in CeAl 2
journal, August 1984


Frustrated rare earth magnetism: Spin glasses, spin liquids and spin ices in pyrochlore oxides
journal, February 2006


Low-energy electrodynamics of novel spin excitations in the quantum spin ice Yb2Ti2O7
journal, September 2014

  • Pan, LiDong; Kim, Se Kwon; Ghosh, A.
  • Nature Communications, Vol. 5, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.1038/ncomms5970

Quantum spin fluctuations in the spin-liquid state of Tb 2 Ti 2 O 7
journal, December 2011


Theory of Spin-Orbit Coupling in Atoms. III
journal, April 1964


Cooperative Paramagnetism in the Geometrically Frustrated Pyrochlore Antiferromagnet Tb 2 Ti 2 O 7
journal, February 1999


Frustrated Magnetism and Cooperative Phase Transitions in Spinels
journal, January 2010

  • Lee, Seung-Hun; Takagi, Hidenori; Louca, Despina
  • Journal of the Physical Society of Japan, Vol. 79, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.1143/JPSJ.79.011004

Electrical conduction in rare-earth monoselenides and monotellurides and their alloys
journal, September 1964


Fluctuations and All-In–All-Out Ordering in Dipole-Octupole Nd 2 Zr 2 O 7
journal, November 2015


Order by virtual crystal field fluctuations in pyrochlore XY antiferromagnets
journal, May 2016


Magnets with strong geometric frustration
journal, January 2001


Polarized inelastic neutron scattering of the partially ordered Tb 2 Sn 2 O 7
journal, December 2007


Vindication of Yb 2 Ti 2 O 7 as a Model Exchange Quantum Spin Ice
journal, August 2012


CdEr 2 Se 4 : A New Erbium Spin Ice System in a Spinel Structure
journal, June 2010


Magnetic ordering in Gd 2 Sn 2 O 7 : the archetypal Heisenberg pyrochlore antiferromagnet
journal, January 2006

  • Wills, A. S.; Zhitomirsky, M. E.; Canals, B.
  • Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter, Vol. 18, Issue 3
  • DOI: 10.1088/0953-8984/18/3/L02

Crystal-field parameters of the rare-earth pyrochlores R 2 Ti 2 O 7 ( R = Tb , Dy, and Ho)
journal, July 2016


Candidate quantum spin ice in the pyrochlore Pr 2 Hf 2 O 7
journal, July 2016


Crystallographic and Magnetic Studies of Rare Earth Chalcogenide Spinels
journal, May 1972

  • Fujii, Hironobu; Okamoto, Tetsuhiko; Kamigaichi, Takahiko
  • Journal of the Physical Society of Japan, Vol. 32, Issue 5
  • DOI: 10.1143/JPSJ.32.1432

Frustrated magnetism in the Heisenberg pyrochlore antiferromagnets A Yb 2 X 4 ( A = Cd , Mg; X = S , Se)
journal, May 2017


Crystal Field Theory Interpretation of the Magnetic Susceptibility of CdYb2Se4 Spinel
journal, August 1974

  • Pokrzywnicki, S.; Czopnik, A.; Wróbel, B.
  • physica status solidi (b), Vol. 64, Issue 2
  • DOI: 10.1002/pssb.2220640232

Proprietes magnetiques des oxyseleniures de Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm et structure magnetique de Ho2O2Se et de Yb2O2Se
journal, May 1972


Magnetic properties and crystal field in MgYb2S4 and MgYb2Se4 spinels
journal, December 1988


Effect of chemical pressure on the crystal electric field states of erbium pyrochlore magnets
journal, January 2018


Magnetic Field Induced Transition in Vanadium Spinels
journal, January 2014


Symmetry enriched U(1) topological orders for dipole-octupole doublets on a pyrochlore lattice
journal, January 2017


Neutron scattering investigations of the partially ordered pyrochlore Tb 2 Sn 2 O 7
journal, November 2009


Systematic Variation of Quadrupole Crystal-Field Shielding in Rare-Earth Ethyl Sulfates
journal, March 1966


Disorder-Induced Quantum Spin Liquid in Spin Ice Pyrochlores
journal, February 2017


Crystal growth and optical properties of rare earth sesquiselenides and sesquisulphides — new magneto-optic materials
journal, March 1995


Magnetic pyrochlore oxides
journal, January 2010

  • Gardner, Jason S.; Gingras, Michel J. P.; Greedan, John E.
  • Reviews of Modern Physics, Vol. 82, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.1103/RevModPhys.82.53

Structure and magnetic properties of sulfides of the type CdRE2S4 and Mg(GdxYb1−x)2S4
journal, November 1980


Dipolar Spin Ice States with a Fast Monopole Hopping Rate in CdEr 2 X 4 ( X = Se , S)
journal, March 2018


Quantum Excitations in Quantum Spin Ice
journal, October 2011


Magnetic and Orbital Ordering in the Spinel MnV 2 O 4
journal, February 2008


166 Er Mössbauer spectroscopy study of magnetic ordering in a spinel-based potential spin-ice system: CdEr 2 S 4
journal, May 2015

  • Legros, Anaëlle; Ryan, D. H.; Dalmas de Réotier, P.
  • Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 117, Issue 17
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.4906182

Zero-point entropy in ‘spin ice’
journal, May 1999

  • Ramirez, A. P.; Hayashi, A.; Cava, R. J.
  • Nature, Vol. 399, Issue 6734
  • DOI: 10.1038/20619

Geometrical magnetic frustration in rare-earth chalcogenide spinels
journal, August 2005


Magnetic excitations in Tb 2 Sn 2 O 7 and Tb 2 Ti 2 O 7 as measured by inelastic neutron scattering
journal, November 2007


Quantum Spin Ices and Topological Phases from Dipolar-Octupolar Doublets on the Pyrochlore Lattice
journal, April 2014


Thermodynamic properties of quadrupolar states in the frustrated pyrochlore magnet Tb 2 Ti 2 O 7
journal, April 2017


Orbital Ordering and Magnetic Field Effect in MnV 2 O 4
journal, March 2007


Magnetoelastically induced vibronic bound state in the spin-ice pyrochlore Ho 2 Ti 2 O 7
journal, July 2018


Crystal-field interaction in the pyrochlore magnet Ho2Ti2O7
journal, May 2000

  • Rosenkranz, S.; Ramirez, A. P.; Hayashi, A.
  • Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 87, Issue 9
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.372565

Order in the Heisenberg pyrochlore: The magnetic structure of Gd 2 Ti 2 O 7
journal, September 2001


Spin-glass-like behavior in Y2Mo2O7, a concentrated, crystalline system with negligible apparent disorder
journal, September 1986


Ordered Spin Ice State and Magnetic Fluctuations in Tb 2 Sn 2 O 7
journal, June 2005


Magnets with strong geometric frustration
journal, December 2001

  • Moessner, R.
  • Canadian Journal of Physics, Vol. 79, Issue 11-12
  • DOI: 10.1139/p01-123

Magnetic ordering in the XY pyrochlore antiferromagnet Er 2 Ti 2 O 7 : a spherical neutron polarimetry study
journal, October 2007


Geometrical Frustration in the Ferromagnetic Pyrochlore Ho 2 Ti 2 O 7
journal, September 1997


Disordered Route to the Coulomb Quantum Spin Liquid: Random Transverse Fields on Spin Ice in Pr 2 Zr 2 O 7
journal, March 2017


Spin Ice State in Frustrated Magnetic Pyrochlore Materials
journal, November 2001


Analysis of the Magnetic Susceptibility of CdYb2 S4 Spinel by Means of the Crystal Field Method
journal, September 1975


Jahn–Teller instability in spinel Li–Mn–O
journal, September 1999


EasySpin, a comprehensive software package for spectral simulation and analysis in EPR
journal, January 2006


Crystal electric field in the R 2 Ti 2 O 7 pyrochlore compounds
journal, May 2012


Candidate Quantum Spin Liquid in the Ce 3 + Pyrochlore Stannate Ce 2 Sn 2 O 7
journal, August 2015


Crystal-field states of Pr 3 + in the candidate quantum spin ice Pr 2 Sn 2 O 7
journal, September 2013


Magnetic susceptibility of Tm2Se3 and CdTm2Se4 compounds
journal, January 1977


Frustrated Quantum Rare-Earth Pyrochlores
journal, March 2019


Ising Pyrochlore Magnets: Low-Temperature Properties, “Ice Rules,” and Beyond
journal, August 1999


CdEr2S4: Magnetic and Mössbauer measurements
journal, September 1981


Sternheimer Shielding-Antishielding; Rare-Earth Ions
journal, March 1973


Quantum spin fluctuations in the spin liquid state of Tb2Ti2O7
text, January 2011


Spin Ice, Fractionalization and Topological Order
text, January 2011


Magnetic Field Induced Transition in Vanadium Spinels
text, January 2013


Order by virtual crystal field fluctuations in pyrochlore XY antiferromagnets
text, January 2015


Effect of Chemical Pressure on the Crystal Electric Field States of Erbium Pyrochlore Magnets
text, January 2017


Ising pyrochlore magnets: Low temperature properties, ice rules and beyond
text, January 1999