Magnetic order and ice rules in the multiferroic spinel FeV2O4

Abstract

We present a neutron diffraction study of FeV2O4, which is rare in exhibiting spin and orbital degrees of freedom on both cation sublattices of the spinel structure. Our data confirm the existence of three structural phase transitions previously identified with x-ray powder diffraction, and reveal that the lower two transitions are associated with sequential collinear and canted ferrimagnetic transitions involving both cation sites. Through consideration of local crystal and spin symmetry, we further conclude that Fe2+ cations are ferro-orbitally ordered below 135K and V3+ orbitals order at 60K in accordance with predictions for vanadium spinels with large trigonal distortions and strong spin-orbit coupling. Intriguingly, the direction of ordered vanadium spins at low temperatures obey `ice rules' more commonly associated with the frustrated rare-earth pyrochlore systems.

10 pages, 9 figures, including Supplemental Material

References in corpus (8)

• Magnetic and orbital ordering in the spinel MnV2O4
• Structural, orbital, and magnetic order in vanadium spinels
• Magnetic transition and orbital degrees of freedom in vanadium spinels
• A Spin-Orbital Singlet and Quantum Critical Point on the Diamond Lattice: FeSc2S4
• Spin and Orbital Order of the Vanadium Spinel MgV2O4
• Orbital order in ZnV${}_2$O${}_4$
• Homopolar bond formation in ZnV${}_2$O${}_4$ close to a metal-insulator transition
• Ordered spin-ice state in the geometrically frustrated metallic-ferromagnet Sm2Mo2O7

Cited by in corpus (7)

• Polyhedral distortions and unusual magnetic order in spinel FeMn${}_2$O${}_4$
• Strong competition between orbital-ordering and itinerancy in a frustrated spinel vanadate
• Magnetic and Structural Phase Transitions in the Spinel Compound Fe1+xCr2-xO4
• Magnetic excitations and anomalous spin wave broadening in multiferroic FeV2O4
• Evolution of the magnetic and structural properties of Fe${}_{1-x}$Co${}_x$V${}_2$O${}_4$
• Large Magnetic Anisotropy and Magnetostriction in Thin Films of CoV${}_2$O${}_4$
• Localized-delocalized crossover of spin-carriers and magnetization reversal in Co${}_2$VO${}_4$