Chirality and Magnetocaloricity in GdFeTeO6 as Compared to GdGaTeO6

Elena Zvereva; Tatyana Vasilchikova; Maria Evstigneeva; Angelica Tyureva; Vladimir Nalbandyan; João Gonçalves; Paolo Barone; Alessandro Stroppa; Alexander Vasiliev

doi:10.3390/ma14205954

Chirality and Magnetocaloricity in GdFeTeO₆ as Compared to GdGaTeO₆

Materials (Basel). 2021 Oct 10;14(20):5954. doi: 10.3390/ma14205954.

Authors

Elena Zvereva¹, Tatyana Vasilchikova¹, Maria Evstigneeva², Angelica Tyureva², Vladimir Nalbandyan², João Gonçalves³, Paolo Barone⁴, Alessandro Stroppa⁵, Alexander Vasiliev^{1

6}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Low Temperature Physics and Superconductivity, Physics Faculty, Lomonosov Moscow State University, 119991 Moscow, Russia.
² Department of Chemistry, Southern Federal University, 344090 Rostov-on-Don, Russia.
³ Department of Physics and CICECO, University of Aveiro, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal.
⁴ Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Institute for Superconducting and Innovative Materials and Devices (CNR-SPIN), Area della Ricerca di Tor Vergata, Via del Fosso del Cavaliere 100, I-00133 Rome, Italy.
⁵ Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Institute for Superconducting and Innovative Materials and Devices (CNR-SPIN), c/o Department of Physical and Chemical Sciences, University of L'Aquila, Via Vetoio Coppito, I-67100 L'Aquila, Italy.
⁶ Quantum Functional Materials Laboratory, National University of Science and Technology "MISiS", 119049 Moscow, Russia.

Abstract

GdFeTeO₆ and GdGaTeO₆ have been prepared and their structures refined by the Rietveld method. Both are superstructures of the rosiaite type (space group P3¯1c). Their thermodynamic properties have been investigated by means of magnetization M and specific heat C_p measurements, evidencing the formation of the long-range antiferromagnetic order at T_N = 2.4 K in the former compound and paramagnetic behavior down to 2 K in the latter compound. Large magnetocaloric effect allows considering GdFeTeO₆ for the magnetic refrigeration at liquid hydrogen stage. Density functional theory calculations produce estimations of leading Gd-Gd, Gd-Fe and Fe-Fe interactions suggesting unique chiral 120° magnetic structure of Fe³⁺ (S = 5/2) moments and Gd³⁺ (J = 7/2) moments rotating in opposite directions (clockwise/anticlockwise) within weakly coupled layers of the rosiaite type crystal structure.

Keywords: chirality; magnetocaloricity; metaloxide.