Synthesis and characterization of the novel breathing pyrochlore compound Ba3Tm2Zn5O11

Published

July 3, 2024

Author(s)

Lalit Yadav, Rabindranath Bag, Ramesh Dhakal, Stephen Winter, Jeffrey Rau, Alexander Kolesnikov, Andrey Podlesnyak, Craig Brown, Nicholas Butch, David Graf, Michel Gingras, Sara Haravifard

Abstract

In this study, a novel material from the rare-earth based breathing pyrochlore family, Ba3Tm2Zn5O11, was successfully synthesized. Powder X-ray diffraction and high-resolution powder neutron diffraction confirmed phase purity and crystal structure, while thermogravimetric analysis revealed incongruent melting behavior compared to its counterpart, Ba3Yb2Zn5O11. High-quality single crystals of Ba3Tm2Zn5O11were grown using the traveling solvent floating zone technique and assessed using Laue diffractometer and single crystal X-ray diffraction. Thermodynamic characterization indicated paramagnetic behavior down to 0.05 K, and inelastic neutron scattering measurements identified distinct crystal electric field bands. Additional low-energy excitation studies on single crystals revealed dispersionless bands at 0.8 and 1 meV. Computed phonon dispersions from first principles calculations ruled out phonons as the source of these modes, further illustrating the puzzling and unique properties of Ba3Tm2Zn5O11.

Citation

arxiv

Volume

na

Issue

na

Pub Weblink

https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.00222

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Citation

Yadav, L. , Bag, R. , Dhakal, R. , Winter, S. , Rau, J. , Kolesnikov, A. , Podlesnyak, A. , Brown, C. , Butch, N. , Graf, D. , Gingras, M. and Haravifard, S. (2024), Synthesis and characterization of the novel breathing pyrochlore compound Ba3Tm2Zn5O11, arxiv, [online], https://dx.doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2407.00222, https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.00222 (Accessed July 10, 2025)