Antiferromagnetism and metamagnetism in ErFeCuGe4O12
Polycrystalline ErFeCuGe4O12 has been prepared in a solid-state reaction. It adopts a tetragonal crystal structure; space group P4/nbm with a = 9.6416(1), c = 4.7532(1) at room temperature. The Er3+ cations are in square-antiprismatic coordination and the Fe3+ and Cu2+ cations are disordered over on...
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| Format: | Journal article |
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Elsevier
2018
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| Summary: | Polycrystalline ErFeCuGe4O12 has been prepared in a solid-state reaction. It adopts a tetragonal crystal structure; space group P4/nbm with a = 9.6416(1), c = 4.7532(1) at room temperature. The Er3+ cations are in square-antiprismatic coordination and the Fe3+ and Cu2+ cations are disordered over one six-coordinate site. The magnetic moments of the three cations adopt an antiferromagnetic arrangement on cooling below 20 K in H = 0 kOe. The magnetic structure consists of ferromagnetic (001) sheets with the spin direction in neighbouring sheets alternating between [001] and [00 ̅ At 5 K the ordered moment of Er3+ was determined by neutron diffraction to be 7.90(3) µB and the mean moment of Fe3+ and Cu2+ was 2.43(2) µB. The magnetic structure is unchanged in an applied field of 10 kOe but in fields ≥ 20 kOe the compound begins a metamagnetic transition to a ferromagnetic structure with all atomic moments aligned along [001]. |
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