Magnetic and Crystallographic Properties of NdMn₆-XFe XSn₆ Intermetallics

Abstract

Intermetallic compounds of NdMn6−xFexSn6 (0 \le x \le 2.0 ) were studied by means of x-ray and neutron diffraction techniques and SQUID magnetic measurements in the temperature range of 30-400 K. The substitution of iron for manganese leads to a phase transition whereby NdMn6Sn6 with the HoFe6Sn6 structure (space group Immm) changes to TbFe6Sn6 (space group Cmcm) for NdMn6−xFexSn6 with x \ge 0.5 . The iron atoms prefer to occupy the 8g sites at iron content x<2.0 due to the longest Mn/Fe-Sn bond distance. The Curie temperature (TC) increases from x = 0 to 1.5 and then decreases for the larger iron content. The magnetic moment of the iron sublattice couples ferromagnetically with the manganese and neodymium moments for the x<2.0 samples. Spin reorientation is observed in samples with iron content up to 1.5, and the spin reorientation temperature (Ts) increases with increasing iron content. Except for NdMn4Fe2Sn6, the easy direction of magnetization for all samples is parallel and perpendicular to the (bc) plane of the unit cell at 300 and 30 K, respectively. The easy direction of magnetization for NdMn4Fe2Sn6 is parallel to the a-axis in the entire temperature range mentioned above, as a result of the anisotropic contraction of the unit cell along the (bc) plane.

Department(s)

Physics

Second Department

Chemistry

Sponsor(s)

United States. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
National Science Foundation (U.S.)
Southern Illinois University (System)

Keywords and Phrases

Condensed Matter: Electrical; Condensed Matter: Magnetic; Condensed Matter: Optical

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

0953-8984

Document Type

Article - Journal

Document Version

Citation

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2004 Institute of Physics - IOP Publishing, All rights reserved.

Publication Date

01 Aug 2004

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