Nuclear and magnetic spin structure of the antiferromagnetic triangular lattice compound LiCrTe2 investigated by [Formula: see text]SR, neutron and X-ray diffraction

E Nocerino; C Witteveen; S Kobayashi; O K Forslund; N Matsubara; A Zubayer; F Mazza; S Kawaguchi; A Hoshikawa; I Umegaki; J Sugiyama; K Yoshimura; Y Sassa; F O von Rohr; M Månsson

doi:10.1038/s41598-022-25921-9

Nuclear and magnetic spin structure of the antiferromagnetic triangular lattice compound LiCrTe₂ investigated by [Formula: see text]SR, neutron and X-ray diffraction

Sci Rep. 2022 Dec 15;12(1):21657. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-25921-9.

Authors

E Nocerino¹, C Witteveen^{2

3}, S Kobayashi⁴, O K Forslund⁵, N Matsubara¹, A Zubayer⁶, F Mazza⁷, S Kawaguchi⁴, A Hoshikawa⁸, I Umegaki⁹, J Sugiyama^{10

11}, K Yoshimura¹², Y Sassa⁵, F O von Rohr², M Månsson¹

Affiliations

¹ KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Department of Applied Physics, Alba Nova University Center, 114 21 Stockholm, Sweden.
² Department of Quantum Matter Physics, University of Geneva, 24 Quai Ernest-Ansermet, 1211 Geneva 4, Switzerland.
³ Department of Physics, University of Zürich, Winterthurerstr. 190, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland.
⁴ Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute (JASRI), 1-1-1 Kouto, Sayo, 679-5198 Japan.
⁵ Department of Physics, Chalmers University of Technology, 412 96 Göteborg, Sweden.
⁶ Department of Physics, Chemistry and Biology (IFM), Linköping University, 581 83 Linköping, Sweden.
⁷ Insitute of Solid State Physics, TU Wien, Wiedner Haupstraße 8-10, 1040 Vienna, Austria.
⁸ Frontier Research Center for Applied Atomic Sciences, Ibaraki University, 162-1 Shirakata, Tokai, Ibaraki 319-1106 Japan.
⁹ Muon Science Laboratory, Institute of Materials Structure Science, KEK, Tokai, Ibaraki 319-1106 Japan.
¹⁰ Neutron Science and Technology Center, Comprehensive Research Organization for Science and Society (CROSS), Tokai, Ibaraki 319-1106 Japan.
¹¹ Advanced Science Research Center, Japan Atomic Energy Agency, Tokai, Ibaraki 319-1195 Japan.
¹² Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Kyoto, 606-8502 Japan.

Abstract

Two-dimensional (2D) triangular lattice antiferromagnets (2D-TLA) often manifest intriguing physical and technological properties, due to the strong interplay between lattice geometry and electronic properties. The recently synthesized 2-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenide LiCrTe[Formula: see text], being a 2D-TLA, enriched the range of materials which can present such properties. In this work, muon spin rotation ([Formula: see text]SR) and neutron powder diffraction (NPD) have been utilized to reveal the true magnetic nature and ground state of LiCrTe[Formula: see text]. From high-resolution NPD the magnetic spin order at base-temperature is not, as previously suggested, helical, but rather collinear antiferromagnetic (AFM) with ferromagnetic (FM) spin coupling within the ab-plane and AFM coupling along the c-axis. The value if the ordered magnetic Cr moment is established as [Formula: see text]. From detailed [Formula: see text]SR measurements we observe an AFM ordering temperature [Formula: see text] K. This value is remarkably higher than the one previously reported by magnetic bulk measurements. From [Formula: see text]SR we are able to extract the magnetic order parameter, whose critical exponent allows us to categorize LiCrTe[Formula: see text] in the 3D Heisenberg AFM universality class. Finally, by combining our magnetic studies with high-resolution synchrotron X-ray diffraction (XRD), we find a clear coupling between the nuclear and magnetic spin lattices. This suggests the possibility for a strong magnon-phonon coupling, similar to what has been previously observed in the closely related compound LiCrO[Formula: see text].