corner
corner
APS » Journals » Phys. Rev. Lett. » Volume 103 » Issue 3
< Previous Article | Next Article >

Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 037201 (2009) [4 pages]

Spin-Lattice Order in Frustrated ZnCr2O4

Download: PDF (1,655 kB) Buy this article Export: BibTeX or EndNote (RIS)

S. Ji1,2, S.-H. Lee1,*, C. Broholm3, T. Y. Koo4, W. Ratcliff2, S.-W. Cheong5, and P. Zschack6
1Department of Physics, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia 22904-4714, USA
2NIST Center for Neutron Research, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Maryland 20899, USA
3Department of Physics and Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland 21218, USA
4Pohang Accelerator Laboratory, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Pohang, 790-784, Korea
5Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rutgers University, Piscataway, New Jersey 08854, USA
6Frederick-Seitz Materials Research Lab, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA

Received 12 May 2009; published 15 July 2009

Using synchrotron x-ray and neutron diffraction, we disentangle spin-lattice order in highly frustrated ZnCr2O4 where magnetic chromium ions occupy the vertices of regular tetrahedra. Upon cooling below 12.5 K the quandary of antialigning spins surrounding the triangular faces of tetrahedra is resolved by establishing weak interactions on each triangle through an intricate lattice distortion. However, the resulting spin order is not simply a Néel state on strong bonds, but rather a complex coplanar spin structure, indicating that antisymmetric and/or further neighbor exchange interactions also play a role as ZnCr2O4 resolves conflicting magnetic interactions.

© 2009 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.037201
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.037201
PACS:
75.25.+z, 61.05.cp, 61.05.fm, 75.50.Ee

*shlee@virginia.edu

 
< Previous Article | Next Article >