Sawtooth lattice multiferroic BeCr2O4 : Noncollinear magnetic structure and multiple magnetic transitions

Mandujano, Hector Cein; Metta, Alejandro; Barišić, Neven; Zhang, Qiang; Tabiś, Wojciech; Muniraju, Naveen Kumar Chogondahalli; Nair, Harikrishnan S.

doi:10.1103/physrevmaterials.7.024422

Title: Sawtooth lattice multiferroic BeCr 2 O 4 : Noncollinear magnetic structure and multiple magnetic transitions

Journal Article · Tue Feb 28 00:00:00 EST 2023 · Physical Review Materials

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevmaterials.7.024422· OSTI ID:1999001

^[1];

^[2];

^[3];

^[4];

^[5];

^[1]

Univ. of Texas at El Paso, TX (United States)
Vienna Univ. of Technology (Austria)
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
AGH - Univ. of Science and Technology, Krakow (Poland)
Polish Academy of Sciences (PAS), Krakow (Poland); Vienna Univ. of Technology (Austria); Institute of Physics (Croatia)

Noncollinear magnetic structures and multiple magnetic phase transitions in a sawtooth lattice antiferromagnet consisting of Cr³⁺ are experimentally identified in this work, thereby proposing the scenario of magnetism-driven ferroelectricity in a sawtooth lattice. The title compound, BeCr₂O₄, displays three magnetic phase transitions at low temperatures—at T_N1 ≈ 7.5 K, at T_N2 ≈ 25 K, and at T_N3 ≈ 26 K—revealed through magnetic susceptibility, specific heat, and neutron diffraction in this work. These magnetic phase transitions are found to be influenced by externally applied magnetic fields. Isothermal magnetization curves at low temperatures below the magnetic transitions indicate the antiferromagnetic nature of BeCr₂O₄ with two spin-flop-like transitions occurring at H_c1 ≈ 29 kOe and H_c2 ≈ 47 kOe. Our high-resolution x-ray and neutron diffraction studies, performed on single crystal and powder samples, unambiguously determined the crystal structure as orthorhombic Pbnm. By performing the magnetic superspace group analysis of the neutron diffraction data at low temperatures, the magnetic structure in the temperature range T_N3,N2 < T < T_N1 is determined to be the polar magnetic space group P21nm. 1' (00g) 0s0s with a cycloidal magnetic propagation vector k₁ = (0, 0, 0.090 (1)) . The magnetic structure in the newly identified phase below T_N1 is determined as P21/b.1' [b] (00 g) 00s with the magnetic propagation vector k₂ = (0, 0, 0.908 (1)). Finally, the cycloidal spin structure determined in our work is usually associated with electric polarization, thereby making BeCr₂O₄ a promising multiferroic belonging to the sparsely populated family of sawtooth lattice antiferromagnets.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Cite

Export

Save

Research Organization:: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Scientific User Facilities (SUF); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC05-00OR22725; AC02-06CH11357

OSTI ID:: 1999001

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1988703

Journal Information:: Physical Review Materials, Vol. 7, Issue 2; ISSN 2475-9953

Publisher:: American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

References (68)

POWGEN: rebuild of a third-generation powder diffractometer at the Spallation Neutron Source Huq, Ashfia; Kirkham, Melanie; Peterson, Peter F. Journal of Applied Crystallography, Vol. 52, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1107/S160057671901121X	journal	October 2019
Mariinskite, BeCr2O4, a new mineral, chromium analog of chrysoberyl Pautov, L. A.; Popov, M. P.; Erokhin, Yu. V. Geology of Ore Deposits, Vol. 55, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1134/S1075701513080096	journal	December 2013
Magnetic structure study of the sawtooth chain antiferromagnet $$\hbox {Fe}_2\hbox {Se}_2\hbox {O}_7$$ Nawa, Kazuhiro; Avdeev, Maxim; Berdonosov, Peter Scientific Reports, Vol. 11, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-03058-5	journal	December 2021
Cupric oxide as an induced-multiferroic with high-TC Kimura, T.; Sekio, Y.; Nakamura, H. Nature Materials, Vol. 7, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat2125	journal	February 2008
Ferro-Antiferromagnetic Delta-Chain System Studied by High Field Magnetization Measurements Inagaki, Yuji; Narumi, Yasuo; Kindo, Koichi Journal of the Physical Society of Japan, Vol. 74, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1143/JPSJ.74.2831	journal	October 2005
Ferroelectricity in Spiral Magnets Mostovoy, Maxim Physical Review Letters, Vol. 96, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.96.067601	journal	February 2006
Coupling of Magnetic and Ferroelectric Hysteresis by a Multicomponent Magnetic Structure in ${Mn}_{2} {GeO}_{4}$ White, J. S.; Honda, T.; Kimura, K. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 108, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.077204	journal	February 2012
Symmetry-Based Computational Tools for Magnetic Crystallography Perez-Mato, J. M.; Gallego, S. V.; Tasci, E. S. Annual Review of Materials Research, Vol. 45, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-matsci-070214-021008	journal	July 2015
Advances in magnetoelectric multiferroics Spaldin, N. A.; Ramesh, R. Nature Materials, Vol. 18, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-018-0275-2	journal	February 2019
Multiferroics of spin origin Tokura, Yoshinori; Seki, Shinichiro; Nagaosa, Naoto Reports on Progress in Physics, Vol. 77, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1088/0034-4885/77/7/076501	journal	July 2014
Magnetic-Field-Induced Ferroelectric State in ${DyFeO}_{3}$ Tokunaga, Y.; Iguchi, S.; Arima, T. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 101, Issue 9 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.101.097205	journal	August 2008
Magnetic Inversion Symmetry Breaking and Ferroelectricity in ${TbMnO}_{3}$ Kenzelmann, M.; Harris, A. B.; Jonas, S. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 95, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.95.087206	journal	August 2005
The evolution of multiferroics Fiebig, Manfred; Lottermoser, Thomas; Meier, Dennis Nature Reviews Materials, Vol. 1, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1038/natrevmats.2016.46	journal	July 2016
The origin of ferroelectricity in magnetoelectric YMnO3 Van Aken, Bas B.; Palstra, Thomas T. M.; Filippetti, Alessio Nature Materials, Vol. 3, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat1080	journal	February 2004
VESTA 3 for three-dimensional visualization of crystal, volumetric and morphology data Momma, Koichi; Izumi, Fujio Journal of Applied Crystallography, Vol. 44, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1107/S0021889811038970	journal	October 2011
Ferroelectricity and Giant Magnetocapacitance in Perovskite Rare-Earth Manganites Goto, T.; Kimura, T.; Lawes, G. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 92, Issue 25 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.92.257201	journal	June 2004
Multiferroics with Spiral Spin Orders Tokura, Yoshinori; Seki, Shinichiro Advanced Materials, Vol. 22, Issue 14 https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.200901961	journal	December 2009
Structure and Magnetic Phase Diagrams of Multiferroic Mn ₂ GeO ₄ Honda, Takashi; Ishiguro, Yuki; Nakamura, Hiroyuki Journal of the Physical Society of Japan, Vol. 81, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1143/JPSJ.81.103703	journal	October 2012
High spin cycles: topping the spin record for a single molecule verging on quantum criticality Baniodeh, Amer; Magnani, Nicola; Lan, Yanhua npj Quantum Materials, Vol. 3, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41535-018-0082-7	journal	February 2018
Ferroelectric Polarization Flop in a Frustrated Magnet ${MnWO}_{4}$ Induced by a Magnetic Field Taniguchi, K.; Abe, N.; Takenobu, T. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 97, Issue 9 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.97.097203	journal	August 2006
Antiferromagnetism and the emergence of frustration in the sawtooth lattice chalcogenide olivines ${Mn}_{2} {SiS}_{4 - x} {Se}_{x}$ ( $x = 0 - 4$ ) Nhalil, H.; Baral, R.; Khamala, B. O. Physical Review B, Vol. 99, Issue 18 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.99.184434	journal	May 2019
From kagome strip to kagome lattice: Realizations of frustrated $S = \frac{1}{2}$ antiferromagnets in Ti(III) fluorides Jeschke, Harald O.; Nakano, Hiroki; Sakai, Tôru Physical Review B, Vol. 99, Issue 14 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.99.140410	journal	April 2019
Multiferroicity: the coupling between magnetic and polarization orders Wang, K. F.; Liu, J. -M.; Ren, Z. F. Advances in Physics, Vol. 58, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1080/00018730902920554	journal	July 2009
Perspective: Photonic flatbands Leykam, Daniel; Flach, Sergej APL Photonics, Vol. 3, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5034365	journal	July 2018
Coupled multiferroic domain switching in the canted conical spin spiral system Mn2GeO4 Honda, T.; White, J. S.; Harris, A. B. Nature Communications, Vol. 8, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms15457	journal	June 2017
Neutron Diffraction Investigation of the Spiral Magnetic Structure in Cr₂BeO₄ Cox, D. E.; Frazer, B. C.; Newnham, R. E. Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 40, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1657557	journal	March 1969
Excited states and the thermodynamics of a fully frustrated quantum spin chain Kubo, Kenn Physical Review B, Vol. 48, Issue 14 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.48.10552	journal	October 1993
Inversion-symmetry breaking in the noncollinear magnetic phase of the triangular-lattice antiferromagnet $Cu Fe O_{2}$ Kimura, T.; Lashley, J. C.; Ramirez, A. P. Physical Review B, Vol. 73, Issue 22 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.73.220401	journal	June 2006
High-throughput first-principles calculations as a powerful guiding tool for materials engineering: Case study of the AB2X4 (A = Be, Mg, Ca, Sr, ba; B = Al, Ga, in; X = O, S) spinel compounds Wang, Y.; Chen, W. -B.; Liu, F. -Y. Results in Physics, Vol. 13 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rinp.2019.102180	journal	June 2019
Epitaxial BiFeO₃ Multiferroic Thin Film Heterostructures Wang, J.; Neaton, J. B.; Zheng, H. Science, Vol. 299, Issue 5613, p. 1719-1722 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1080615	journal	March 2003
Electric polarization reversal and memory in a multiferroic material induced by magnetic fields Hur, N.; Park, S.; Sharma, P. A. Nature, Vol. 429, Issue 6990 https://doi.org/10.1038/nature02572	journal	May 2004
MATERIALS SCIENCE: The Renaissance of Magnetoelectric Multiferroics Spaldin, N. A. Science, Vol. 309, Issue 5733 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1113357	journal	July 2005
Antiferromagnetic resonance in chromium chrysoberyl Elliston, P. R.; Troup, G. J. Proceedings of the Physical Society, Vol. 92, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1088/0370-1328/92/4/326	journal	December 1967
Complex magnetic order in the decorated spin-chain system ${Rb}_{2} {Mn}_{3} {({MoO}_{4})}_{3} {(OH)}_{2}$ Liu, Yaohua; Sanjeewa, Liurukara D.; Garlea, V. Ovidiu Physical Review B, Vol. 101, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.101.064423	journal	February 2020
Complex magnetic behavior of the sawtooth Fe chains in Rb $_{2}$ Fe $_{2}$ O(AsO $_{4}$ ) $_{2}$ Garlea, V. Ovidiu; Sanjeewa, Liurukara D.; McGuire, Michael A. Physical Review B, Vol. 89, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.89.014426	journal	January 2014
Anharmonic interactions in beryllium oxide Morell, G.; Pérez, W.; Ching-Prado, E. Physical Review B, Vol. 53, Issue 9 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.53.5388	journal	March 1996
Composite domain walls in a multiferroic perovskite ferrite Tokunaga, Yusuke; Furukawa, Nobuo; Sakai, Hideaki Nature Materials, Vol. 8, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat2469	journal	June 2009
Role of the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction in multiferroic perovskites Sergienko, I. A.; Dagotto, E. Physical Review B, Vol. 73, Issue 9 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.73.094434	journal	March 2006
Magnetic control of ferroelectric polarization Kimura, T.; Goto, T.; Shintani, H. Nature, Vol. 426, Issue 6962 https://doi.org/10.1038/nature02018	journal	November 2003
Specific features of cation distribution in the crystal structure of mariinskite BeCr2O4 (Derivative of olivine-type structure) Yamnova, N. A.; Aksenov, S. M.; Pautov, L. A. Crystallography Reports, Vol. 59, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1134/S1063774514010192	journal	January 2014
Pyroxenes: a new class of multiferroics Jodlauk, S.; Becker, P.; Mydosh, J. A. Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter, Vol. 19, Issue 43 https://doi.org/10.1088/0953-8984/19/43/432201	journal	September 2007
Magnetic Properties of Chromium Chrysoberyl Santoro, R. P.; Newnham, R. E. Journal of the American Ceramic Society, Vol. 47, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1151-2916.1964.tb13796.x	journal	October 1964
Observation of Localized States in Lieb Photonic Lattices Vicencio, Rodrigo A.; Cantillano, Camilo; Morales-Inostroza, Luis Physical Review Letters, Vol. 114, Issue 24 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.114.245503	journal	June 2015
Magnetic Dimensionality of the Antiferromagnet CuO Shimizu, Tadashi; Matsumoto, Takehiko; Goto, Atsushi Journal of the Physical Society of Japan, Vol. 72, Issue 9 https://doi.org/10.1143/JPSJ.72.2165	journal	September 2003
${Cu}_{3} {Nb}_{2} O_{8}$ : A Multiferroic with Chiral Coupling to the Crystal Structure Johnson, R. D.; Nair, Sunil; Chapon, L. C. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 107, Issue 13 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.107.137205	journal	September 2011
Rare earth chromites: a new family of multiferroics Sahu, Jyoti Ranjan; Serrao, Claudy Rayan; Ray, Nirat J. Mater. Chem., Vol. 17, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1039/B612093H	journal	January 2007
Magnetization Process of Atacamite: A Case of Weakly Coupled S=1/2 Sawtooth Chains Heinze, L.; Jeschke, H. O.; Mazin, I. I. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 126, Issue 20 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.126.207201	journal	May 2021
Spin-flopping in LiMnPO4 and Cr2BeO4 Ranicar, J. H.; Elliston, P. R. Physics Letters A, Vol. 25, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1016/0375-9601(67)90960-7	journal	November 1967
Magnetic Reversal of the Ferroelectric Polarization in a Multiferroic Spinel Oxide Yamasaki, Y.; Miyasaka, S.; Kaneko, Y. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 96, Issue 20 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.96.207204	journal	May 2006
A Method of Controlling the Sense of the Screw Spin Structure Siratori, Kiiti; Akimitsu, Jun; Kita, Eiji Journal of the Physical Society of Japan, Vol. 48, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1143/JPSJ.48.1111	journal	April 1980
First-principles determination of exchange interactions in delafossite $Y Cu O_{2.5}$ Le Bacq, O.; Pasturel, A.; Lacroix, C. Physical Review B, Vol. 71, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.71.014432	journal	January 2005
Quantum solitons in the sawtooth lattice Sen, D.; Shastry, B. S.; Walstedt, R. E. Physical Review B, Vol. 53, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.53.6401	journal	March 1996
Spin and orbital orderings behind multiferroicity in delafossite and related compounds Terada, Noriki Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter, Vol. 26, Issue 45 https://doi.org/10.1088/0953-8984/26/45/453202	journal	October 2014
Classifying multiferroics: Mechanisms and effects Khomskii, Daniel Physics, Vol. 2 https://doi.org/10.1103/Physics.2.20	journal	March 2009
Topological flat band Models and Fractional Chern Insulators Bergholtz, Emil J.; Liu, Zhao International Journal of Modern Physics B, Vol. 27, Issue 24 https://doi.org/10.1142/S021797921330017X	journal	September 2013
Magnetoferroelectricity in Cr ₂ BeO ₄ Newnham, R. E.; Kramer, J. J.; Schulze, W. A. Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 49, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.324527	journal	December 1978
Multiferroics by Rational Design: Implementing Ferroelectricity in Molecule-Based Magnets Pardo, Emilio; Train, Cyrille; Liu, Hongbo Angewandte Chemie International Edition, Vol. 51, Issue 33 https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.201202848	journal	July 2012
Multiferroicity due to charge ordering van den Brink, Jeroen; Khomskii, Daniel I. Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter, Vol. 20, Issue 43 https://doi.org/10.1088/0953-8984/20/43/434217	journal	October 2008
Multiferroics: a magnetic twist for ferroelectricity Cheong, Sang-Wook; Mostovoy, Maxim Nature Materials, Vol. 6, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat1804	journal	January 2007
Non- d0 ferroelectricity from semicovalent superexchange in bismuth ferrite Shen, Yang; Wan, Xiangang; Zhao, Qingbiao Physical Review B, Vol. 104, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.104.024421	journal	July 2021
Spin gapped behavior of a frustrated delta chain compound euchroite Kikuchi, Hikomitsu; Fujii, Yutaka; Takahashi, Daisuke Journal of Physics: Conference Series, Vol. 320 https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/320/1/012045	journal	September 2011
Studies of beryllium chromite and other beryllia compounds with R2O3 oxides Weir, C. E.; van Valkenburg, A. Journal of Research of the National Bureau of Standards Section A: Physics and Chemistry, Vol. 64A, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.6028/jres.064A.008	journal	January 1960
Spintronics with multiferroics Béa, H.; Gajek, M.; Bibes, M. Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter, Vol. 20, Issue 43 https://doi.org/10.1088/0953-8984/20/43/434221	journal	October 2008
Crystallographic Computing System JANA2006: General features Petříček, Václav; Dušek, Michal; Palatinus, Lukáš Zeitschrift für Kristallographie - Crystalline Materials, Vol. 229, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1515/zkri-2014-1737	journal	January 2014
Spin-Driven Ferroelectricity in Triangular Lattice Antiferromagnets $A {CrO}_{2}$ ( $A = Cu$ , Ag, Li, or Na) Seki, S.; Onose, Y.; Tokura, Y. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 101, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.101.067204	journal	August 2008
Predicted thermoelectric properties of olivine-type Fe ₂ GeCh ₄ (Ch = S, Se and Te) Gudelli, Vijay Kumar; Kanchana, V.; Vaitheeswaran, G. Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter, Vol. 28, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1088/0953-8984/28/2/025502	journal	December 2015
Spin Current and Magnetoelectric Effect in Noncollinear Magnets Katsura, Hosho; Nagaosa, Naoto; Balatsky, Alexander V. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 95, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.95.057205	journal	July 2005
Multiferroics: Different ways to combine magnetism and ferroelectricity Khomskii, D. I. Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials, Vol. 306, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmmm.2006.01.238	journal	November 2006

Similar Records

Structural and double magnetic transitions in the frustrated spin-12 capped-kagome antiferromagnet (RbCl)Cu5P2O10

Journal Article · Wed Sep 27 00:00:00 EDT 2023 · Physical Review. B · OSTI ID:1999001

Mohanty, S.; Babu, J.; Furukawa, Y.; +1 more

Structural transition and anisotropic magnetism in disordered Zintl phase Eu7Ga6Sb8

Journal Article · Fri Sep 15 00:00:00 EDT 2023 · Physical Review Materials · OSTI ID:1999001

Cook, Matthew S.; Peterson, Elizabeth A.; Girod, Clément; +5 more

Microscopic characterization of the magnetic properties of the itinerant antiferromagnet La2Ni7 by La139 NMR/NQR measurements

Journal Article · Thu Aug 10 00:00:00 EDT 2023 · Physical Review. B · OSTI ID:1999001

Ding, Qing -Ping; Babu, Joyal; Rana, K.; +5 more

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
multiferroics
neutron diffraction
x-ray diffraction

Title: Sawtooth lattice multiferroic BeCr 2 O 4 : Noncollinear magnetic structure and multiple magnetic transitions

Citation Formats

References (68)

Similar Records

Related Subjects