MnSb2O6: A Polar Magnet with a Chiral Crystal Structure

Abstract

Structural and magnetic chiralities are found to coexist in a small group of materials in which they produce intriguing phenomenologies such as the recently discovered Skyrmion phases. Here, we describe a previously unknown manifestation of this interplay in MnSb(2)O(6), a trigonal oxide with a chiral crystal structure. Unlike all other known cases, the MnSb(2)O(6) magnetic structure is based on corotating cycloids rather than helices. The coupling to the structural chirality is provided by a magnetic axial vector, related to the so-called vector chirality. We show that this unique arrangement is the magnetic ground state of the symmetric-exchange Hamiltonian, based on ab initio theoretical calculations of the Heisenberg exchange interactions, and is stabilized by out-of-plane anisotropy. MnSb(2)O(6) is predicted to be multiferroic with a unique ferroelectric switching mechanism.

MnSnTeO6: A Chiral Antiferromagnet Prepared by a Two-Step Topotactic Transformation

“…The decisive role of the anisotropy of the distorted MnO 6 and SbO 6 octahedra for stabilization of the cycloid spin structure in MnSb 2 O 6 was noted. 18,19 Figure 15. Model of the magnetic structure.…”

“…Strong Coulomb correlations were taken into account via GGA+U method. 62 The onsite Hubbard repulsion and intra-atomic Hund's exchange parameters were chosen to be U = 4 eV and J H = 1.0 eV (similar to typical values used for Mn in the literature 18,63 ).…”

Ground State of the Spin-1/2 Chain of Green Dioptase at High Fields

“…Recently, the interplay between crystallographic and magnetic chiralities has been paid attention, because properties of the helimagnetic structure depends on its underlying chiral crystalline structure as represented by MnSi [1][2][3]. In this article, we focus attention on the gem-stone dioptase Cu 6 Si 6 O 18 ·6H 2 O, which is a transparent green mineral built up from helical spin chains of magnetic Cu 2+ ions along threefold axis along c. These helical chains form a unique threefold spin network, called a dioptase lattice [4].…”

“…In this article, we focus attention on the gem-stone dioptase Cu 6 Si 6 O 18 ·6H 2 O, which is a transparent green mineral built up from helical spin chains of magnetic Cu 2+ ions along threefold axis along c. These helical chains form a unique threefold spin network, called a dioptase lattice [4]. Our motivation is rooted in a simple interest on whether or not this characteristic crystal structures will affect its magnetic structure [1][2][3][4][5].…”

Local and long-range magnetic order of thespin−32systemCoSb2O6

“…7,[15][16][17] In the case of CuSb 2 O 6 , Nakua and Greedan 17 proposed two magnetic structures based on powder neutron diffraction data. One of these structures is the two-sublattice (or orthogonal) AFM structure, which describes the copper magnetic moments ordered antiparallel along [110] at z = 0 and [110] at z = 1/2.…”