Nuclear and magnetic spin structure of the antiferromagnetic triangular lattice compound LiCrTe2 investigated by μ+ SR, neutron and X-ray diffraction
Journal article, 2022
Two-dimensional (2D) triangular lattice antiferromagnets (2D-TLA) often manifest intriguing physical and technological properties, due to the strong interplay between lattice geometry and electronic properties. The recently synthesized 2-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenide LiCrTe2, being a 2D-TLA, enriched the range of materials which can present such properties. In this work, muon spin rotation (μ+SR) and neutron powder diffraction (NPD) have been utilized to reveal the true magnetic nature and ground state of LiCrTe2. From high-resolution NPD the magnetic spin order at base-temperature is not, as previously suggested, helical, but rather collinear antiferromagnetic (AFM) with ferromagnetic (FM) spin coupling within the ab-plane and AFM coupling along the c-axis. The value if the ordered magnetic Cr moment is established as μCr=2.36μB. From detailed μ+SR measurements we observe an AFM ordering temperature TN≈ 125 K. This value is remarkably higher than the one previously reported by magnetic bulk measurements. From μ+SR we are able to extract the magnetic order parameter, whose critical exponent allows us to categorize LiCrTe2 in the 3D Heisenberg AFM universality class. Finally, by combining our magnetic studies with high-resolution synchrotron X-ray diffraction (XRD), we find a clear coupling between the nuclear and magnetic spin lattices. This suggests the possibility for a strong magnon–phonon coupling, similar to what has been previously observed in the closely related compound LiCrO2.
Author
E. Nocerino
AlbaNova University Center
C. Witteveen
University of Geneva
University of Zürich
S. Kobayashi
Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute (JASRI)
Ola Kenji Forslund
Chalmers, Physics, Materials Physics
Nami Matsubara
AlbaNova University Center
Anton Zubayer
Linköping University
F. Mazza
Vienna University of Technology
S. Kawaguchi
Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute (JASRI)
A. Hoshikawa
Ibaraki University
I. Umegaki
High Energy Accelerator Research Organization
Jun Sugiyama
Comprehensive Research Organization for Science and Society
Japan Atomic Energy Agency
Kazuyoshi Yoshimura
Graduate School of Science
Yasmine Sassa
Chalmers, Physics, Materials Physics
F. O. von Rohr
University of Geneva
Martin Månsson
AlbaNova University Center
Scientific Reports
2045-2322 (ISSN) 20452322 (eISSN)
Vol. 12 1 21657Subject Categories
Inorganic Chemistry
Other Physics Topics
Condensed Matter Physics
DOI
10.1038/s41598-022-25921-9
PubMed
36522382