Stuffed rare earth pyrochlore solid solutions

G. C. Lau, B. D. Muegge, T. M. McQueen, E. L. Duncan, R. J. Cava

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

89 Scopus citations

Abstract

Synthesis and crystal structures are described for the compounds Ln2(Ti2-xLnx)O7-x/2, where Ln=Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb, Lu, and x ranges from 0 to 0.67. Rietveld refinements of X-ray powder diffraction data indicate that in the Tb and Dy titanate pyrochlores, the extra Ln3+ cations mix mainly on the Ti4+ site with little disorder on the original Ln3+ site. For the smaller rare earths (Ho-Lu), stuffing additional lanthanide ions results in a pyrochlore to defect fluorite transition, where the Ln3+ and Ti4+ ions become completely randomized at the maximum (x=0.67). Initial magnetic characterization for the fully stuffed x=0.67 samples for Ln=Tb-Yb shows no long range ordering down to 2 K, and only partial saturation of the full expected magnetic moment under applied fields up to 5 T. In all of these Ln-Ti-O pyrochlores, the addition of magnetic Ln3+ in place of non-magnetic Ti4+ adds edge sharing tetrahedral spin interactions to a normally corner sharing tetrahedral network of spins. The increase in spin connectivity in this family of solid solutions represents a new avenue for investigating geometrical magnetic frustration in the rare earth titanate pyrochlores.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)3126-3135
Number of pages10
JournalJournal of Solid State Chemistry
Volume179
Issue number10
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 2006

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials
  • Ceramics and Composites
  • Condensed Matter Physics
  • Physical and Theoretical Chemistry
  • Inorganic Chemistry
  • Materials Chemistry

Keywords

  • Geometrically frustrated magnet
  • Pyrochlore
  • Pyrochlore to fluorite solid solution
  • Rare earth titanate
  • Stuffed pyrochlore
  • Stuffed spin ice

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