Revealing magnetic ground state of a layered cathode material by muon spin relaxation and neutron scattering experiments

Although the majority of studies on battery materials have focused on enhancing their electrochemical performance, the understanding of their magnetic and atomic structures as well as the intimate connections between these structures and properties is significant. Muon spin relaxation (μSR) spectros...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Applied physics letters 2019-05, Vol.114 (20)
Main Authors: Miao, Ping, Wang, Rui, Zhu, Weiming, Liu, Jiajie, Liu, Tongchao, Hu, Jiangtao, Li, Shuankui, Tan, Zhijian, Koda, Akihiro, Zhu, Fengfeng, Feng, Erxi, Su, Yixi, Kamiyama, Takashi, Xiao, Yinguo, Pan, Feng
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Applied physics
Cathodes
Electrochemical analysis
Electrode materials
Ground state
Inelastic scattering
Lithium
Lithium-ion batteries
Manganese
Muon spin relaxation
Muons
Neutron scattering
Neutrons
Nickel
Rechargeable batteries
Spin dynamics
Spin glasses
Variation
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Although the majority of studies on battery materials have focused on enhancing their electrochemical performance, the understanding of their magnetic and atomic structures as well as the intimate connections between these structures and properties is significant. Muon spin relaxation (μSR) spectroscopy and neutron scattering techniques at low temperature have been used to explore the nature of the magnetic state of Li(Ni0.4Mn0.4Co0.2)O2 cathode materials. Interestingly, the μSR experiment reveals that the spins of Ni/Mn/Co ions turn glassy at a low temperature of 19 K, while the unprecedented spin dynamics survives until the base temperature of 5.6 K. Moreover, the complementary neutron scattering measurements show magnetic diffuse scattering signals in the form of a broad peak at Q = 1.6 Å−1 attributed to short-range spin correlation which establishes below ∼120 K. Upon cooling to as low as 480 mK, long-range magnetic order still could not be established. The inelastic neutron scattering intensities demonstrate clearly the existence of dynamic spin fluctuations. In contrast to the conventional spin glass system, the coexistence of both dynamic and static components in the ground state suggests an unconventional spin glass state in magnetically frustrated Li(Ni0.4Mn0.4Co0.2)O2 cathode materials for Li-ion batteries.
ISSN:0003-6951
1077-3118
DOI:10.1063/1.5096620