Triangular Magnet Emergent from Noncentrosymmetric Sr0.94Mn0.86Te1.14O6 Single Crystals

Kalimuthu Moovendaran; Raju Kalaivanan; I Panneer Muthuselvam; K Ramesh Babu; Suheon Lee; C H Lee; Khasim Saheb Bayikadi; Namasivayam Dhenadhayalan; Wei-Tin Chen; Chin-Wei Wang; Yen-Chung Lai; Yoshiyuki Iizuka; Kwang-Yong Choi; Vladimir B Nalbandyan; Raman Sankar

doi:10.1021/acs.inorgchem.2c01585

Triangular Magnet Emergent from Noncentrosymmetric Sr_0.94Mn_0.86Te_1.14O₆ Single Crystals

Inorg Chem. 2022 Dec 5;61(48):19058-19066. doi: 10.1021/acs.inorgchem.2c01585. Epub 2022 Nov 22.

Authors

Kalimuthu Moovendaran¹, Raju Kalaivanan¹, I Panneer Muthuselvam², K Ramesh Babu^{3

4}, Suheon Lee⁵, C H Lee⁵, Khasim Saheb Bayikadi¹, Namasivayam Dhenadhayalan⁶, Wei-Tin Chen^{7

8}, Chin-Wei Wang⁹, Yen-Chung Lai⁹, Yoshiyuki Iizuka¹⁰, Kwang-Yong Choi¹¹, Vladimir B Nalbandyan¹², Raman Sankar¹

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Physics, Academia Sinica, Taipei 11529, Taiwan.
² Department of Physics (MMV), Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh 221005, India.
³ Department of Physics, National Taiwan University, Taipei 10617, Taiwan.
⁴ Physics Division, National Center for Theoretical Sciences, Hsinchu 30013, Taiwan.
⁵ Department of Physics, Chung-Ang University, Seoul 06974, Republic of Korea.
⁶ Department of Chemistry, National Taiwan University, Taipei 10617, Taiwan.
⁷ Center for Condensed Matter Sciences and Center of Atomic Initiative for New Materials, National Taiwan University, Taipei 10617, Taiwan.
⁸ Taiwan Consortium of Emergent Crystalline Materials, Ministry of Science and Technology, Taipei 10622, Taiwan.
⁹ National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center, Hsinchu 30076, Taiwan.
¹⁰ Institute of Earth Sciences, Academia Sinica, Nankang, Taipei 11529, Taiwan.
¹¹ Department of Physics, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon 16419, Republic of Korea.
¹² Chemistry Faculty, Southern Federal University, Rostov-on-Don 344090, Russia.

PMID: 36414026
DOI: 10.1021/acs.inorgchem.2c01585

Abstract

We report the successful growth of high-quality single crystals of Sr_0.94Mn_0.86Te_1.14O₆ (SMTO) using a self-flux method. The structural, electronic, and magnetic properties of SMTO are investigated by neutron powder diffraction (NPD), single-crystal X-ray diffraction (SCXRD), thermodynamic, and nuclear magnetic resonance techniques in conjunction with density functional theory calculations. NPD unambiguously determined octahedral (trigonal antiprismatic) coordination for all cations with the chiral space group P312 (no. 149), which is further confirmed by SCXRD data. The Mn and Te elements occupy distinct Wyckoff sites, and minor anti-site defects were observed in both sites. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy reveals the existence of mixed valence states of Mn in SMTO. The magnetic susceptibility and specific heat data evidence a weak antiferromagnetic order at T_N = 6.6 K. The estimated Curie-Weiss temperature θ_CW = -21 K indicates antiferromagnetic interaction between Mn ions. Furthermore, both the magnetic entropy and the ¹²⁵Te nuclear spin-lattice relaxation rate showcase that short-range spin correlations persist well above the Néel temperature. Our work demonstrates that Sr_0.94(2)Mn_0.86(3)Te_1.14(3)O₆ single crystals realize a noncentrosymmetric triangular antiferromagnet.