Frustrated Magnetism in FeGe3O4with a Chiral Trillium Network

Matt Boswell; Mingyu Xu; Haozhe Wang; Mouyang Cheng; Na Li; Xuefeng Sun; Haidong Zhou; Huibo Cao; Mingda Li; Weiwei Xie

doi:10.1021/jacs.5c22025

Frustrated Magnetism in FeGe₃O₄with a Chiral Trillium Network

Matt Boswell
, Mingyu Xu
, Haozhe Wang
, Mouyang Cheng
, Na Li
, Xuefeng Sun
, Haidong Zhou
, Huibo Cao
, Mingda Li
, Weiwei Xie

Single Crystal Diffraction

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

The discovery of new magnetic ground states in geometrically frustrated lattices remains a central challenge in materials science. Here, we report the synthesis, structural characterization, and frustrated magnetic properties of FeGe₃O₄, a newly identified compound that crystallizes in the noncentrosymmetric cubic space group P2₁3. In this structure, Fe atoms form an intricate double-trillium lattice with nearest-neighbor Fe–Fe distances of ∼4.2 Å, while Ge²⁺ ions mediate magnetic interactions through Fe–Ge–Fe pathways. Field-dependent magnetization at 2 K shows a pronounced nonlinearity, reaching a maximum moment of 2.55(3) μ_B/Fe²⁺ at 70 kOe without evidence of saturation. Magnetic susceptibility, heat capacity, and neutron scattering collectively reveal the onset of short-range magnetic interactions near 5 K, with no long-range ordering detected down to 0.06 K. Specific heat measurements demonstrate strong frustration: only ∼34% of the expected magnetic entropy is recovered at 2.4 K. Taken together, these results establish FeGe₃O₄ as a rare example of a geometrically frustrated trillium lattice magnet, offering a promising platform for exploring exotic quantum magnetic phenomena.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	7731-7737
Number of pages	7
Journal	Journal of the American Chemical Society
Volume	148
Issue number	7
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.5c22025
State	Published - Feb 25 2026

Funding

The work at Michigan State University was supported by the U.S. DOE-BES under Contract DE-SC0023648. H.Z. is thankful for the support from National Science Foundation Grant No. DMR-2003117. M.L. acknowledges support from U.S. DOE-BES under Contract DE-SC0020148. This research at ORNL’s Spallation Neutron Source was sponsored by the Scientific User Facilities Division, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, U.S. Department of Energy. The beamline CORELLI was used through IPTS-36066. This material is based upon work supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Workforce Development for Teachers and Scientists, Office of Science Graduate Student Research (SCGSR) program. The SCGSR program is administered by the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) for the DOE. ORISE is managed by ORAU under contract number DE-SC0014664. All opinions expressed in this paper are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the policies and views of DOE, ORAU, or ORISE. N.L. and X.F.S. were supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2023YFA1406500) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 12404043, 12574042, and 12274388).

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10.1021/jacs.5c22025

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title = "Frustrated Magnetism in FeGe3O4with a Chiral Trillium Network",

abstract = "The discovery of new magnetic ground states in geometrically frustrated lattices remains a central challenge in materials science. Here, we report the synthesis, structural characterization, and frustrated magnetic properties of FeGe3O4, a newly identified compound that crystallizes in the noncentrosymmetric cubic space group P213. In this structure, Fe atoms form an intricate double-trillium lattice with nearest-neighbor Fe{\textendash}Fe distances of ∼4.2 {\AA}, while Ge2+ ions mediate magnetic interactions through Fe{\textendash}Ge{\textendash}Fe pathways. Field-dependent magnetization at 2 K shows a pronounced nonlinearity, reaching a maximum moment of 2.55(3) μB/Fe2+ at 70 kOe without evidence of saturation. Magnetic susceptibility, heat capacity, and neutron scattering collectively reveal the onset of short-range magnetic interactions near 5 K, with no long-range ordering detected down to 0.06 K. Specific heat measurements demonstrate strong frustration: only ∼34\% of the expected magnetic entropy is recovered at 2.4 K. Taken together, these results establish FeGe3O4 as a rare example of a geometrically frustrated trillium lattice magnet, offering a promising platform for exploring exotic quantum magnetic phenomena.",

author = "Matt Boswell and Mingyu Xu and Haozhe Wang and Mouyang Cheng and Na Li and Xuefeng Sun and Haidong Zhou and Huibo Cao and Mingda Li and Weiwei Xie",

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N2 - The discovery of new magnetic ground states in geometrically frustrated lattices remains a central challenge in materials science. Here, we report the synthesis, structural characterization, and frustrated magnetic properties of FeGe3O4, a newly identified compound that crystallizes in the noncentrosymmetric cubic space group P213. In this structure, Fe atoms form an intricate double-trillium lattice with nearest-neighbor Fe–Fe distances of ∼4.2 Å, while Ge2+ ions mediate magnetic interactions through Fe–Ge–Fe pathways. Field-dependent magnetization at 2 K shows a pronounced nonlinearity, reaching a maximum moment of 2.55(3) μB/Fe2+ at 70 kOe without evidence of saturation. Magnetic susceptibility, heat capacity, and neutron scattering collectively reveal the onset of short-range magnetic interactions near 5 K, with no long-range ordering detected down to 0.06 K. Specific heat measurements demonstrate strong frustration: only ∼34% of the expected magnetic entropy is recovered at 2.4 K. Taken together, these results establish FeGe3O4 as a rare example of a geometrically frustrated trillium lattice magnet, offering a promising platform for exploring exotic quantum magnetic phenomena.

AB - The discovery of new magnetic ground states in geometrically frustrated lattices remains a central challenge in materials science. Here, we report the synthesis, structural characterization, and frustrated magnetic properties of FeGe3O4, a newly identified compound that crystallizes in the noncentrosymmetric cubic space group P213. In this structure, Fe atoms form an intricate double-trillium lattice with nearest-neighbor Fe–Fe distances of ∼4.2 Å, while Ge2+ ions mediate magnetic interactions through Fe–Ge–Fe pathways. Field-dependent magnetization at 2 K shows a pronounced nonlinearity, reaching a maximum moment of 2.55(3) μB/Fe2+ at 70 kOe without evidence of saturation. Magnetic susceptibility, heat capacity, and neutron scattering collectively reveal the onset of short-range magnetic interactions near 5 K, with no long-range ordering detected down to 0.06 K. Specific heat measurements demonstrate strong frustration: only ∼34% of the expected magnetic entropy is recovered at 2.4 K. Taken together, these results establish FeGe3O4 as a rare example of a geometrically frustrated trillium lattice magnet, offering a promising platform for exploring exotic quantum magnetic phenomena.

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Frustrated Magnetism in FeGe₃O₄with a Chiral Trillium Network

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