Room-Temperature Ferromagnetism in Mg1- xMn2+ xAs2 with Layered Structure

Xiao-Cun Liu; Min Zhu; Sheng-Qing Xia

doi:10.1021/acs.inorgchem.1c02040

Room-Temperature Ferromagnetism in Mg_{1- x}Mn_{2+ x}As₂ with Layered Structure

Inorg Chem. 2021 Sep 20;60(18):14357-14363. doi: 10.1021/acs.inorgchem.1c02040. Epub 2021 Aug 27.

Authors

Xiao-Cun Liu¹, Min Zhu^{2

3}, Sheng-Qing Xia²

Affiliations

¹ School of Civil Engineering, Shandong Jiaotong University, Jinan, Shandong 250023, People's Republic of China.
² State Key Laboratory of Crystal Materials, Institute of Crystal Materials, Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong 250100, People's Republic of China.
³ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Lanzhou University of Technology, Lanzhou, Gansu 730050, People's Republic of China.

PMID: 34450003
DOI: 10.1021/acs.inorgchem.1c02040

Abstract

A series of Mg/Mn mixed intermetallic compounds Mg_1-xMn_2+xAs₂ (x = 0.17, 0.48, 0.69) were synthesized by using metal flux reactions. Single-crystal X-ray diffraction measurements indicated that CaAl₂Si₂-type phases with Mn and Mg atoms located on the cation sites (Wickoff site: 1a) were obtained. The special structure of these Mg_1-xMn_2+xAs₂ compounds corresponded to unique magnetic behavior, which led to increased divergence between zero-field-cooling (ZFC) and field-cooling magnetic susceptibilities with decreasing temperature. The small magnetic hysteresis loop measured at 300 K for Mg_0.31(2)Mn_2.69As₂ revealed its room-temperature ferromagnetism, and its ZFC exchange bias behavior at low temperatures indicated the existence of both ferromagnetic (FM) and antiferromagnetic (AFM) interactions. Spin-polarized density functional theory calculations were also performed to verify the magnetic ground state, and these were consistent with the experimental results.