Canted Antiferromagnetism in the Quasi-1D Iron Chalcogenide BaFe$_{2}$Se$_{4}$

TL;DR

This study synthesizes and characterizes BaFe₂Se₄, revealing its canted antiferromagnetic order and semiconducting behavior, with detailed magnetic structure analysis via neutron diffraction.

Contribution

First detailed investigation of the magnetic structure and properties of BaFe₂Se₄, a quasi-1D iron chalcogenide with canted antiferromagnetism.

Findings

BaFe₂Se₄ is a narrow gap semiconductor.

Magnetic ordering occurs at approximately 310 K.

The magnetic structure is canted antiferromagnetic with a net ferromagnetic component.

Abstract

We report the synthesis and physical properties studies of quais-1D iron chalcogenide $\rm BaFe_2Se_4$ which shares the $\rm FeSe_4$ tetrahedra building motif commonly seen in the iron chalcogenide superconductors. A high-quality polycrystalline sample was achieved by solid-state reaction method and characterized by X-ray diffraction, electrical resistivity, magnetic susceptibility and neutron diffraction measurements. $\rm BaFe_2Se_4$ is a narrow gap semiconductor that magnetically orders at $\sim$ 310 K. Both neutron powder diffraction results and isothermal M-H loops suggest a canted antiferromagnetic structure where Fe sublattice are antiferromagnetically ordered along the c-axis quasi-1D chain direction, resulting in a net ferromagnetic moment in the perpendicular direction along the a-axis with tilted angle of 18.7$^\circ$ towards the b-axis.