Effects of oxygen deficiency on the magnetic ordering of Mn in Tb0.9Na0.1MnO2.9

Abstract

Monovalent Na+ ions have been incorporated into a multiferroic TbMnO3 compound. Structural studies, using high-resolution neutron diffraction patterns, show that monovalent Na+-doping results in a noticeable oxygen deficiency in the compound. The alternations in crystalline and magnetic structures due to oxygen deficiency are investigated by neutron diffraction and magnetic susceptibility measurements. Na-doping turns the modulated incommensurate Mn spin structure, observed for the parent compound, into a simple commensurate one. The observed magnetic diffraction patterns agree very well with that calculated assuming a D-type arrangement for the Mn spins, with the moments pointing along the c-axis direction. No significant alternation in the ordering temperature of the Mn moments is found. © 2008, Institute of Physics