Low Temperature Structural Instability of Tetragonal Spinel Mn3O4

초록

Tetragonal ferrimagnetic spinel Mn3O4 shows complex magnetic phase transitions due to competing antiferromagnetic interactions involving Mn2+/3+ ions with difference valences. Using magnetization and neutron diffraction measurements, we propose that its tetragonal lattice possesses an instability towards orthorhombic distortion in zero field well below T-N. The direction of the observed instability suggests that the anomaly is related to lifting of the persistent geometrical frustration via spin-lattice coupling.

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