Magnetic correlations in the intermetallic antiferromagnet Nd3Co4Sn13. (21st September 2017) - Wang, C W
Abstract: Specific heat, magnetic susceptibility, and neutron scattering have been used to investigate the nature of the spin system in the antiferromagnet Nd3 Co4 Sn13 . At room temperature Nd3 Co4 Sn13 has a cubic, Pm- 3 n structure similar to Yb3 Rh4 Sn13 . Antiferromagnetic interactions between, Nd 3+ ions dominate the magnetic character of this sample and at 2.4 K the Nd spins enter a long range order state with a magnetic propagation vector q = (0 0 0) with an ordered moment of 1.78(2) µ B at 1.5 K. The magnetic Bragg intensity grows very slowly below 1 K, reaching ~2.4 µ B at 350 mK. The average magnetic Nd 3+ configuration corresponds to the 3D irreducible representation Γ7 . This magnetic structure can be viewed as three sublattices of antiferromagnetic spin chains coupled with each other in the 120°-configuration. A well-defined magnetic excitation was measured around the 1 1 1 zone centre and the resulting dispersion curve is appropriate for an antiferromagnet with a gap of 0.20(1) meV.