# The magnetic properties and structure of the quasi-two-dimensional antiferromagnet CoPS$_3$

## TL;DR

This study investigates the magnetic properties and structure of CoPS$_3$, a quasi-two-dimensional antiferromagnet, revealing XY-like anisotropy, a specific magnetic structure, and temperature-dependent magnetic behavior.

## Contribution

The paper provides detailed magnetic characterization and neutron diffraction analysis of CoPS$_3$, confirming its magnetic structure and anisotropy, and analyzing its temperature-dependent magnetic properties.

## Key findings

- CoPS$_3$ exhibits XY-like magnetic anisotropy.
- The magnetic structure has a propagation vector {f{k}}= [010] with moments mainly along the a-axis.
- Magnetic Bragg peak intensity follows a power law decay with temperature.

## Abstract

The magnetic properties and magnetic structure are presented for CoPS$_3$, a quasi-two-dimensional antiferromagnet on a honeycomb lattice with a N\'eel temperature of $T_N \sim 120$ K. The compound is shown to have XY-like anisotropy in its susceptibility, and the anisotropy is analysed to extract crystal field parameters. For temperatures between 2 K and 300 K, no phase transitions were observed in the field-dependent magnetization up to 10 Tesla. Single-crystal neutron diffraction shows that the magnetic propagation vector is {\bf{k}}= $\left[010\right]$ with the moments mostly along the $\mathbf{a}$ axis and with a small component along the $\mathbf{c}$ axis, which largely verifies the previously-published magnetic structure for this compound. The magnetic Bragg peak intensity decreases with increasing temperature as a power law with exponent $2\beta = 0.60 \pm 0.01$ for $T > 0.9~T_N$.