Continuous structural phase transition and antiferromagnetic order in ilmenite-type NiVO

山本 孟*; 池田 理*; 本田 孝志*; 木村 健太*; 青山 拓也*; 大串 研也*; 鈴木 昭夫*; 石井 賢司*; 松村 大樹; 辻 卓也; et al.

Physical Review Materials (Internet), 8(9), p.094402_1 - 094402_6, 2024/09

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevMaterials.8.094402

We investigate the crystal and electronic structures as well as magnetic properties of ilmenite-type NiVO, which has attracted research interest as an = 1 honeycomb lattice magnet. Ilmenite-type NiVO samples were synthesized under high-pressure and high-temperature conditions. Synchrotron X-ray diffraction and Rietveld refinement results demonstrated that NiVO underwent a continuous structural phase transition from the triclinic () phase to the rhombohedral () phase at 450 K. This transition is concomitant with the decomposition of the V-V dimers formed by the tetravalent V ions. X-ray absorption spectroscopy measurements confirmed that the Ni and V ions were divalent and tetravalent, respectively. Magnetic and specific heat measurements revealed that NiVO underwent an antiferromagnetic transition at 140 K, and a zigzag-type magnetic order with magnetic propagation vector =(0,1/2,0) was observed by neutron diffraction measurements.