Neutron diffraction study of antiferromagnetic ErNi3Ga9 in magnetic fields

We report specific heat, magnetization, magnetoresistance, and neutron diffraction measurements of single crystals of ErNi3Ga9. This compound crystalizes in a chiral structure with space group R32. The erbium ions form a two–dimensional honeycomb structure. ErNi3Ga9 displays antiferromagnetic order...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physica. B, Condensed matter Condensed matter, 2018-05, Vol.536, p.392-396
Main Authors: Ninomiya, Hiroki, Sato, Takaaki, Matsumoto, Yuji, Moyoshi, Taketo, Nakao, Akiko, Ohishi, Kazuki, Kousaka, Yusuke, Akimitsu, Jun, Inoue, Katsuya, Ohara, Shigeo
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anisotropy
Antiferromagnetism
Chiral crystal
Chirality
Diffraction
DM-interaction
Erbium compounds
ErNi3Ga9
Ferrites
Honeycomb construction
Intermetallic compounds
Ising antiferromagnet
Ising model
Magnetic fields
Magnetic moments
Magnetic properties
Magnetic structure
Magnetoresistance
Magnetoresistivity
Metamagnetism
Neutron diffraction
Neutrons
Single crystals
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Summary:We report specific heat, magnetization, magnetoresistance, and neutron diffraction measurements of single crystals of ErNi3Ga9. This compound crystalizes in a chiral structure with space group R32. The erbium ions form a two–dimensional honeycomb structure. ErNi3Ga9 displays antiferromagnetic order below 6.4K. We determined that the magnetic structure is slightly amplitude–modulated as well as antiferromagnetic with q=(0,0,0.5). The magnetic properties are described by an Ising–like model in which the magnetic moment is always along the c–axis owing to the large uniaxial anisotropy caused by the crystalline electric field effect in the low temperature region. When the magnetic field is applied along the c–axis, a metamagnetic transition is observed around 12kOe at 2K. ErNi3Ga9 possesses crystal chirality, but the antisymmetric magnetic interaction, the so-called Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya (DM) interaction, does not contribute to the magnetic structure, because the magnetic moments are parallel to the DM–vector.
ISSN:0921-4526
1873-2135
DOI:10.1016/j.physb.2017.09.057