Spin freezing into a disordered state in $\mathrm{CaFeT}{\mathrm{i}}_2{\mathrm{O}}_6$ synthesized under high pressure

Journal Article · Fri Aug 03 00:00:00 EDT 2018 · Physical Review B

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.98.064201· OSTI ID:1507870

Li, Xiang ^[1]; Xu, W. M. ^[2]; McGuire, Michael A.  ^[3]; Cho, Yujin ^[1]; Downer, M. C. ^[1]; Wan, Y. ^[4]; Li, X. Y. ^[1]; Li, Z. Y. ^[1]; Cui, Q. ^[5]; Cheng, J. -G. ^[5]; Goodenough, J. B. ^[1]; Zhou, J. -S. ^[1]

---

1. Univ. of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX (United States)
2. Tel Aviv Univ., Tel Aviv (Israel)
3. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
4. Univ. of Oxford, Oxford (United Kingdom)
5. Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing (China)

Double perovskites exhibit a variety of interesting phenomena due to numerous combinations of cation orderings and distortions. CaMnTi₂O₆ and CaFeTi₂O₆ are the only two discovered double perovskites that have the columnar type A-site ordering associated with the a⁺a⁺c^– titling system. The former perovskite, synthesized recently, has a polar structure below T_c and shows an unusual ferroelectricity. The latter, while synthesized decades ago, received less investigation. Here, we have synthesized CaFeTi₂O₆ under high pressure and carried out thorough characterizations through measurements of x-ray powder diffraction (XRD), second harmonic generation (SHG), dc and ac magnetization, Mössbauer spectra, resistivity, thermoelectric power, and specific heat. Although the structural refinement of the XRD pattern cannot distinguish two possible tetragonal phases, SHG measurements help to rule out the possibility of a polar structure observed in CaMnTi₂O₆. Fitting the paramagnetic susceptibility to a Curie-Weiss law gives a negligible Weiss constant. The weak exchange interaction gives way to a dipole-dipole interaction and single-ion anisotropy. An anomaly at 1.2 K in the specific heat is too broad for a magnetic transition, but suggestive of a spin-ice-like state as in the pyrochlores. Mössbauer spectroscopy shows two distinct iron sites, as expected for the crystal structure. Both sites are occupied by high-spin Fe²⁺ as indicated by the isomer shift. The sharply different temperature dependence of the quadrupole splitting at the two iron sites can be well explained based on the local structural distortions from the refinement of XRD patterns. In conclusion, the line broadening associated with long spin-relaxation times is observed at 6 K as the spin freezing transition is approached from high temperatures.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
• Grant/Contract Number: AC05-00OR22725; DMR-1729588; F-1066; F-1038; 11574377; 2018YFA0305700; QYZDB-SSW-SLH013; XDB07020100
• OSTI ID: 1507870
• Alternate ID(s): OSTI ID: 1462796
• Journal Information: Physical Review B, Vol. 98, Issue 6; ISSN 2469-9950
• Publisher: American Physical Society (APS)
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE