Structural characterization and magnetic properties of chromium jarosite KCr3(OD)(6)(SO4)(2)
Potassium chromium jarosite, KCr3(OH)(6)(SO4)(2) (Cr-jarosite), is considered a promising candidate to display spin liquid behavior due to the strong magnetic frustration imposed by the crystal structure. However, the ground state magnetic properties have been debated, since Cr-jarosite is notoriously non-stoichiometric. Our study reports the magnetic properties for deuterated KCr3(OD)(6)(SO4)(2) on chemically well-defined samples, which have been characteried by a combination of powder X-ray diffraction, neutron diffraction, solid state NMR spectroscopy, and scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive spectroscopy. Eight polycrystalline samples, which all contained only 1-3% Cr vacancies were obtained. However, significant substitution (2-27%) of potassium with H2O and/or H3O+ was observed and resulted in pronounced stacking disorder along the c-axis. A clear second-order transition to an antiferromagnetically ordered phase at T-N = 3.8(1) K with a small net moment of 0.03 mu(B) per Cr3+-ion was obtained from vibrating sample magnetometry and temperature dependent neutron diffraction. The moment is attributed to spin canting caused by the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction. Thus, our experimental results imply that even ideal potassium chromium jarosite will exhibit magnetic order below 4 K and therefore it does not qualify as a true spin liquid material.
Cite this item
Janas, S., Sorensen, M. B., Andersen, A. B. A., Juelsholt, M., Boehm, M., Pedersen, K. S., Jensen, K. M. O., Lefmann, K., & Nielsen, U. G. (2020). Structural characterization and magnetic properties of chromium jarosite KCr3(OD)(6)(SO4)(2). Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 22(43), 25001–25010. https://doi.org/10.1039/d0cp04978f
Click Copy to copy the citation, or select the text manually.
WOS:000588601200012
2020-11-21
22
43
25001
25010
REVIEWED
EPFL