Zig-zag ladders with staggered magnetic chirality in S = 3/2 compound beta-CaCr2O4

Abstract

The crystal and magnetic structures of the S = 3/2 chain antiferromagnet beta-CaCr2O4 have been investigated by means of specific heat, magnetization, muon relaxation and neutron powder diffraction between 300K and 1.5K. Owing to the original topology of the Cr3+ magnetic lattice, which can be described as a network of triangular ladders, equivalent to chains with nearest and next-nearest neighbors interactions, evolution of the magnetic scattering intensity in this compound evidences two magnetic regimes : for 21K < T < 270K, a low-dimensionality magnetic ordering of the Cr3+ spins is observed, simultaneously with a strong contraction of the ladder legs, parallel to c. Below TN = 21K, a complex antiferromagnetic ordering is evidenced, with an incommensurate propagation vector k = (0, 0, q) (q ~ 0.477 at 1.5K), as exchange interactions between ladders become significant. This complex magnetic ordering can be described as a honeycomb-like arrangement of cycloids, running along c, with staggered chiralities. The experimental observation of this staggered chirality can be understood by taking into account antisymmetric Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya exchange terms.

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References in corpus (4)

• Low-temperature magnetic ordering in SrEr${}_2$O${}_4$
• Symmetry constraints on the electrical polarization in novel multiferroic materials
• Single Crystal Growth, Crystallography, Magnetic Susceptibility, Heat Capacity, and Thermal Expansion of the Antiferromagnetic S = 1 Chain Compound CaV2O4
• Spin polarization of the magnetic spiral in NaCu_2O_2, as seen by NMR

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