Magnetic dilution of a honeycomb lattice XY magnet CoTiO3

Ezekiel Horsley; Xin Rao; Sang Bum Yi; Young-June Kim

doi:10.1088/1361-648X/ac484c

Magnetic dilution of a honeycomb lattice XY magnet CoTiO₃

J Phys Condens Matter. 2022 Jan 24;34(13). doi: 10.1088/1361-648X/ac484c.

Authors

Ezekiel Horsley¹, Xin Rao², Sang Bum Yi¹, Young-June Kim¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physics, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 1A7, Canada.
² Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale, Department of Physics, and Key Laboratory of Strongly-Coupled Quantum Matter Physics (CAS), University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, People's Republic of China.

PMID: 34986470
DOI: 10.1088/1361-648X/ac484c

Abstract

We report our study of cobalt (II) titanate, CoTiO₃, in which magnetic Co ions are replaced by non-magnetic ions. The antiferromagnetic ordering transition of CoTiO₃around 37 K is described with ferromagnetic honeycomb layers coupled antiferromagnetically along the crystallographicc-direction. The effect of magnetic dilution on the Néel temperature of this material is investigated through the doping of Zn²⁺and Mg²⁺in place of Co²⁺for various dilution levels up tox+y= 0.46 in Co_1-x-yZn_xMg_yTiO₃. Single phase polycrystalline samples have been synthesized and their structural and magnetic properties have been examined. A linear relation between dilution and the Néel temperature is observed over a wide doping range. A linear extrapolation would suggest that the required dilution level to suppress magnetic order is aroundx+y∼ 0.74, well beyond the classical percolation threshold. The implication of this observation for microscopic models for describing CoTiO₃is discussed.

Keywords: cobalt titanate; dilution; honeycomb; magnetism; percolation.