Antiferromagnetic ground state of quantum spins in the synthetic imanite, Ca3Ti2Si3O12: the lost child of the garnet family

Inorg Chem. 2011 Oct 17;50(20):10107-12. doi: 10.1021/ic201057h. Epub 2011 Sep 12.

Abstract

Large single crystals of the garnet imanite, Ca(3)Ti(2)Si(3)O(12), were synthesized by a floating zone technique. Near-infrared to visible spectroscopy presents an optical gap of 1.65 eV at 4 K, proving the insulating character of this garnet compound. Electron paramagnetic resonance data indicate that the d(1) electron of Ti(3+) exhibits an orbital contribution to the spin moment (g = 1.859(1)). An antiferromagnetic state is observed below T(N) = 7 K, confirmed by magnetic susceptibility and specific heat data. X-ray diffraction investigations on powders and single crystals of imanite reveal that the crystal structure agrees well with expectations: the cubic symmetry Ia3d describes all obtained single crystal and powder diffraction data.