Magnetic Ordering in the Ising Antiferromagnetic Pyrochlore Nd2ScNbO7

Published

May 14, 2021

Author(s)

C. Mauws, N. Hiebert, M. Rutherford, H. D. Zhou, Q. Huang, M. B. Stone, Nicholas Butch, Y. Su, E. S. Choi, Z. Yamani, C. R. Wiebe

Abstract

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 behavior, here we describe a system in which the structural disorder destroys a disordered moment fragmentation system resulting in long-range antiferromagnetic order due to local symmetry breaking. Nd₂ScNbO₇ is shown to have traces of moment fragmentation behavior through polarized and inelastic neutron scattering. However this is shown to only occur on 14.0(2)% of the neodymium ions. 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 on the B-site which form a hexagon about the A-site. As the moment fragmentation phenomenon is closely linked to the D_3d symmetry, it is proposed that only systems retaining this symmetry, or the reduced D_3d symmetry exhibit moment fragmentation. However, the phenomenon of magnetic fragmentation in magnetic pyrochlore lattices is very robust with respect to chemical structural disorder.

Citation

Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter

Volume

33

Pub Type

Journals

Keywords

order by disorder, neutron scattering

Citation

Mauws, C. , Hiebert, N. , Rutherford, M. , Zhou, H. , Huang, Q. , Stone, M. , Butch, N. , Su, Y. , Choi, E. , Yamani, Z. and Wiebe, C. (2021), Magnetic Ordering in the Ising Antiferromagnetic Pyrochlore Nd₂ScNbO₇, Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter (Accessed October 15, 2025)