Neutron diffraction study of spin and charge ordering in SrFeO(3-delta)

TL;DR

This neutron diffraction study reveals how oxygen vacancies influence the structural and magnetic phases of SrFeO(3-delta), uncovering new magnetic structures and a charge-ordering transition linked to a metal-insulator change.

Contribution

The paper provides a comprehensive analysis of the structural and magnetic phases in SrFeO(3-delta), identifying seven magnetic structures and detailing the charge ordering transition.

Findings

Identified seven distinct magnetic structures in SrFeO(3-delta).

Discovered a structural transition from tetragonal to monoclinic at 75 K.

Linked charge ordering to a metal-insulator transition.

Abstract

We report a comprehensive neutron diffraction study of the crystal structure and magnetic order in a series of single-crystal and powder samples of SrFeO$_{3-\delta}$ in the vacancy range $0 \leq \delta \leq 0.23$. The data provide detailed insights into the interplay between the oxygen vacancy order and the magnetic structure of this system. In particular, a crystallographic analysis of data on Sr8Fe8O23 revealed a structural transition between the high-temperature tetragonal and a low-temperature monoclinic phase with a critical temperature T = 75 K, which originates from charge ordering on the Fe sublattice and is associated with a metal-insulator transition. Our experiments also revealed a total of seven different magnetic structures of SrFeO$_{3-\delta}$ in this range of $\delta$, only two of which (namely an incommensurate helix state in SrFeO3 and a commensurate, collinear antiferromagnetic state in Sr4Fe4O11) had been identified previously. We present a detailed refinement of some of the magnetic ordering patterns and discuss the relationship between the magneto-transport properties of SrFeO$_{3-\delta}$ samples and their phase composition and magnetic microstructure.