Abstract
We have studied the magnetic order of the rare-earth ferroborate CeFe3(BO3)4 through the thermodynamic and the neutron diffraction measurements. The heat capacity and the magnetic susceptibility revealed antiferromagnetic magnetic ordering at 29 K. In the neutron powder diffraction data, we observed the magnetic Bragg peaks indexed by the commensurate (CM) propagation vector kCM=(0,0,32) and the incommensurate (ICM) vector kICM=(0,0,32+δ). The incommensurability δ increases with decreasing the temperature, and is evaluated to be 0.04556(16) at 3.7 K. Magnetic structure analysis reveals that the magnetic moments aligning in the ab plane form the collinear antiferromagnetic structure having kCM and helical structure having kICM. Detailed measurements of the magnetic susceptibility exhibit an additional anomaly at 27 K. Furthermore, the temperature dependence of the neutron diffraction profile on the single-crystal sample shows that the ICM and CM ordering occurs at 29 and 26 K, respectively. These results suggest a phase separation state between the collinear and helical structures. The multiferroicity of CeFe3(BO3)4 is discussed on the basis of the determined magnetic structure.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 224405 |
| Journal | Physical Review B |
| Volume | 98 |
| Issue number | 22 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Dec 4 2018 |
Funding
We are grateful to D. Ueta and H. Yoshizawa for supporting the heat capacity measurement. We thank M. Hagihala for helpful discussions in the magnetic structure analysis. We acknowledge the support of the Australian Centre for Neutron Scattering, Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, in providing the neutron research facilities used in this work. The neutron scattering experiment at the HB-3A used resources at the High Flux Isotope Reactor, a DOE office of Science User Facility operated by the ORNL (IPTS-17582.1). Travel expenses for the neutron diffraction experiments performed using ECHIDNA at ANSTO, Australia, and HB-3A at ORNL, USA were supported by the General User Program for Neutron Scattering Experiments, Institute for Solid State Physics, The University of Tokyo (Proposals No. 16911 and No. 17514), at JRR-3, Japan Atomic Energy Agency, Tokai, Japan. S.H. and S.H. were supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science through the Leading Graduate Schools (MERIT).