Magnetic structure of an incommensurate phase of La-doped BiFe0.5Sc0.5O3: Role of antisymmetric exchange interactions

TL;DR

This study investigates how La doping induces an incommensurate structural phase in BiFe0.5Sc0.5O3 and explores how antisymmetric exchange interactions influence magnetic ordering and weak ferromagnetism.

Contribution

It reveals the role of antisymmetric exchange interactions in controlling magnetic structures in La-doped BiFe0.5Sc0.5O3 with incommensurate phases.

Findings

Incommensurate structural phase induced by La doping.

Antisymmetric exchange interactions control spin orientation.

Weak ferromagnetism arises from oxygen octahedral tilting.

Abstract

A 20% substitution of Bi with La in the perovskite Bi1-xLaxFe0.5Sc0.5O3 system obtained under high-pressure and high-temperature conditions has been found to induce an incommensurately modulated structural phase. The room temperature X-ray and neutron powder diffraction patterns of this phase were successfully refined using the Imma(0,0,g)s00 superspace group (g=0.534(3)) with the modulation applied to Bi/La- and oxygen displacements. The modulated structure is closely related to the prototype antiferroelectric structure of PbZrO3 which can be considered as the lock-in variant of the latter with g =0.5. Below T_N = 220 K, the neutron diffraction data provide evidence for a long-range G-type antiferromagnetic ordering commensurate with the average Imma structure. Based on a general symmetry consideration, we show that the direction of the spins is controlled by the antisymmetric exchange imposed by the two primary structural distortions, namely oxygen octahedral tilting and incommensurate atomic displacements. The tilting is responsible for the onset of a weak ferromagnetism, observed in magnetization measurements, whereas the incommensurate displacive mode is dictated by the symmetry to couple a spin-density wave. The obtained results demonstrate that antisymmetric exchange is the dominant anisotropic interaction in Fe3+ based distorted perovskites with a nearly quenched orbital degree of freedom.