Fe Site Order and Magnetic Properties of Fe_1/4NbS₂

Transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) have long been attractive to researchers for their diverse properties and high degree of tunability. Most recently, interest in magnetically intercalated TMDs has resurged due to their potential applications in spintronic devices. While certain compositions featuring the absence of inversion symmetry such as Fe_1/3NbS₂ and Cr_1/3NbS₂ have garnered the most attention, the diverse compositional space afforded through the host matrix composition as well as intercalant identity and concentration is large and remains relatively underexplored. Here, we report the magnetic ground state of Fe_1/4NbS₂ that was determined from low-temperature neutron powder diffraction as an A-type antiferromagnet. Despite the presence of overall inversion symmetry, the pristine compound manifests spin polarization induced by the antiferromagnetic order at generic k points, based on density functional theory band-structure calculations. Furthermore, by combining synchrotron diffraction, pair distribution function, and magnetic susceptibility measurements, we find that the magnetic properties of Fe_1/4NbS₂ are sensitive to the Fe site order, which can be tuned via electrochemical lithiation and thermal history.