Peculiarities of Antiferromagnetic Ordering in Orthorhombic LiMnO₂

Abstract

Data on the antiferromagnetic ordering in orthorhombic lithium manganite LiMnO 2 are obtained from magnetic-susceptibility, calorimetry, and nuclear magnetic resonance studies. The minimal hysteresis and the absence of jumps in the temperature dependences of the sublattice magnetization M ( T ) and the magnetic susceptibility near T N indicate that the ordering occurs through a continuous second-order phase transition. within the critical temperature range, the M ( T - T N ) variation is satisfactorily described by a power-law dependence with a critical exponent β = 0.25(4), which is substantially smaller than that predicted for 3D magnetic systems with isotropic Heisenberg exchange. The band structure of orthorhombic LiMnO 2 is calculated using the LMTO-ASA method. Taking into account the spin states of manganese ions, an adequate pattern is obtained for the density-of-states distribution with an energy gap near the Fermi level (~0.7 eV), which is in agreement with the measured electrical parameters of lithium manganite. The calculations demonstrate that the exchange interactions between Mn 3+ ions leading to antiferromagnetic ordering are significantly anisotropic. It is found that small paramagnetic regions persist in the manganite below the Néel temperature, and it is concluded that the reason for this is partial structural disordering of LiMnO 2 . As a result, a certain fraction of the manganese positions is occupied by lithium ions (Li Mn ) and vise versa (Mn Li ). These defects are not involved in the formation of the ordered magnetic structure and compose a paramagnetic fraction.

Department(s)

Physics

Keywords and Phrases

Lithium Manganite; Antiferromagnetism; Calorimetry; Magnetic susceptibility; Nuclear magnetic resonance

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

1063-7834

Document Type

Article - Journal

Document Version

Citation

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2008 MAIK/ Pattern Recognition and Image Analysis, All rights reserved.

Publication Date

01 Jul 2008

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