Magnetic ordering in the Ising antiferromagnetic pyrochlore Nd2ScNbO7

The question of structural disorder and its effects on magnetism is relevant to a number of spin liquid candidate materials. Although commonly thought of as a route to spin glass behaviour, here we describe a system in which the structural disorder results in long-range antiferromagnetic order due t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of physics. Condensed matter 2021-05, Vol.33 (24)
Main Authors: Mauws, C, Hiebert, N, Rutherford, M L, Zhou, H D, Huang, Q, Stone, M B, Butch, N P, Su, Y, Choi, E S, Yamani, Z, Wiebe, C R
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS
frustrated magnetism
neutron scattering
RADIATION CHEMISTRY, RADIOCHEMISTRY, AND NUCLEAR CHEMISTRY
spin ice
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Summary:The question of structural disorder and its effects on magnetism is relevant to a number of spin liquid candidate materials. Although commonly thought of as a route to spin glass behaviour, here we describe a system in which the structural disorder results in long-range antiferromagnetic order due to local symmetry breaking. Nd2ScNbO7 is shown to have a dispersionless gapped excitation observed in other neodymium pyrochlores below TN = 0.37 K through polarized and inelastic neutron scattering. However the dispersing spin waves are not observed. This excited mode is shown to occur in only 14(2)% of the neodymium ions through spectroscopy and is consistent with total scattering measurements as well as the magnitude of the dynamic moment 0.26(2) μB. The remaining magnetic species order completely into the all-in all-out Ising antiferromagnetic structure. This can be seen as a result of local symmetry breaking due disordered Sc+3 and Nb+5 ions about the A-site. From this work, it has been established that B-site disorder restores the dipole-like behaviour of the Nd+3 ions compared to the Nd2ScNbO7parent series.
ISSN:0953-8984
1361-648X
DOI:10.1088/1361-648X/abf594