No abstract

No abstract

The complex perovskite lead iron niobate, Pb(Fe1/2 Nb1/2 )O3 (PFN), has been studied by neutron powder diffraction. Following collection of diffraction data at 300 K and at 10 K, structural refinements have been carried out by means of the Rietveld method. As expected, a straightforward unit cell of symmetry R 3m was obtained for the 300 K structure, with the same symmetry and a similar unit cell also obtained at low temperature. Furthermore, in order to obtain a good agreement with experiment at 10 K, it was necessary to assign non-zero magnetic moments to the iron ions, these being in a collinear, antiferromagnetic alignment. This magnetic structure can be described with reference to doubled unit cell axes. The factors governing the observed structures of PFN are discussed by comparison with the related system of Pb(Mg1/3 Nb2/3 )O3 .

No abstract

The complex metal oxides Ni 2 InSbO 6 (NISO) and Ni 2 ScSbO 6 (NSSO) have been prepared in the form of polycrystalline powders by a solid state reaction route. The crystal structure and magnetic properties of the compounds were investigated using a combination of X-ray and neutron powder diffraction, electron microscopy, calorimetric, and magnetic measurements. The compounds adopt a trigonal structure, space group R3, of the corundum related Ni 3 TeO 6 (NTO) type. Only one of the octahedral Ni positions (Ni(2)) of the NTO structure was found to be occupied by In (Sc). NTO has noncentrosymmetric structure and is ferroelectric below 1000 K; dielectric and second harmonic measurements suggest that also NISO and NSSO are correspondingly ferroelectric. Magnetization measurements signified antiferromagnetic ordering below T N = 60 K (NSSO) and 76 K (NISO). The magnetic structure is formed by two antiferromagnetically coupled incommensurate helices with the spiral axis along the b-axis and propagation vector k = [0, k y ,0] with k y = 0.036(1) (NSSO) and k y = 0.029(1) (NISO). The observed structural and magnetic properties of NISO and NSSO are discussed and compared with those of NTO.