Absence of moment fragmentation in the mixed B -site pyrochlore Nd2GaSbO7

S. J. Gomez, P. M. Sarte, M. Zelensky, A. M. Hallas, B. A. Gonzalez, K. H. Hong, E. J. Pace, S. Calder, M. B. Stone, Y. Su, E. Feng, M. D. Le, C. Stock, J. P. Attfield, S. D. Wilson, C. R. Wiebe, A. A. Aczel

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10 Scopus citations

Abstract

Nd-based pyrochlore oxides of the form Nd2B2O7 have garnered a significant amount of interest owing to the moment fragmentation physics observed in Nd2Zr2O7 and speculated in Nd2Hf2O7. Notably this phenomenon is not ubiquitous in this family, as it is absent in Nd2Sn2O7, which features a smaller ionic radius on the B site. Here, we explore the necessary conditions for moment fragmentation in the Nd pyrochlore family through a detailed study of the mixed B-site pyrochlore Nd2GaSbO7. The B site of this system is characterized by significant disorder and an extremely small average ionic radius. Similarly to Nd2Sn2O7, we find no evidence for moment fragmentation through our bulk characterization and neutron scattering experiments, indicating that chemical pressure (and not necessarily the B-site disorder) plays a key role in the presence or absence of this phenomenon in this material family. Surprisingly, the presence of significant B-site disorder in Nd2GaSbO7 does not generate a spin-glass ground state and instead the same all-in-all-out magnetic order identified in other Nd pyrochlores is found here.

Original languageEnglish
Article number214419
JournalPhysical Review B
Volume103
Issue number21
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 1 2021

Funding

The authors acknowledge fruitful conversations with C. Mauws, B. Ortiz, M. Bordelon, K. Camacho, R. Camacho, C. Schwenk, Y. Wolde-Mariam, A. Reyes, and C. Gomez Alvarado. S.J.G. acknowledges financial support from the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship under Grant No. 1650114. P.M.S. acknowledges financial support from the University of California, Santa Barbara, through the Elings Fellowship. P.M.S. acknowledges additional financial support from the CCSF, RSC, ERC, and the University of Edinburgh, through the GRS and PCDS. B.A.G. acknowledges financial support from the University of California Leadership Excellence through Advanced Degrees (UC LEADS) Fellowship. C.R.W. acknowledges financial support from the CRC (Tier II) program, the Leverhulme Trust, CIFAR, CFI and NSERC. S.D.W. acknowledges financial support from the US Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering under Grant No. DE-SC0017752. J.P.A., K.H.H., and E.J.P. acknowledge financial support from the ERC, the STFC, and the RSC. This research was undertaken thanks in part to funding from the Max Planck-UBC-UTokyo Centre for Quantum Materials and the Canada First Research Excellence Fund, Quantum Materials and Future Technologies Program. A portion of this research used resources at the Spallation Neutron Source and High Flux Isotope Reactor, which are DOE Office of Science User Facilities operated by Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Inelastic neutron scattering experiments on IRIS at the ISIS Neutron and Muon Source were supported by the beamtime allocation RB1720442 to P.M.S. and J.P.A. from the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC). The authors gratefully acknowledge support via the UC Santa Barbara NSF Quantum Foundry funded via the Q-AMASE-i program under award DMR-1906325. The authors would also like to thank the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland for providing facilities and equipment for chemical synthesis. Finally, the authors gratefully acknowledge technical support provided by Heinrich Kolb and financial support provided by the Jülich Centre for Neutron Science (JCNS) to perform the neutron scattering measurements at the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Zentrum (MLZ), Garching, Germany.

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