The crystal and magnetic structure of cesium superoxide

TL;DR

This study reveals the complex crystal and magnetic structures of cesium superoxide (CsO2), showing temperature-dependent structural modulations and antiferromagnetic order with field-induced spin-flop transitions, linking structure to magnetic behavior.

Contribution

First detailed neutron diffraction analysis of CsO2's crystal and magnetic structures, uncovering temperature-dependent modulations and magnetic ordering mechanisms.

Findings

Incommensurate and commensurate structural phases observed.

Antiferromagnetic order with moments along the b-axis below 10 K.

Field-induced spin-flop transition between 2 T and 4 T.

Abstract

CsO2 is a member of the family of alkali superoxides (formula AO2 with A= Na, K, Rb and Cs) that exhibit magnetic behavior arising from open $p$-shell electrons residing on O2- molecules. We use neutron diffraction to solve the crystal and magnetic structures of CsO2, and observe a complex series of structures on cooling from room temperature to 1.6 K. These include an incommensurate modulation along the a-axis of the structure at intermediate temperatures, which then locks into a commensurate modulation that doubles the unit cell compared to the previously supposed orthorhombic unit cell. In both incommensurate and commensurate phases our structural solution involves a staggering of the cesium ion positions along the b-axis, in contrast to studies of other alkali superoxides in which staggered tilts of the O2- dimers relative to the c-axis are seen. Below T ~ 10 K we observe magnetic Bragg reflections arising from an antiferromagnetically ordered structure with a wavevector of k = (0,0,0) (relative to the doubled crystallographic unit cell), with moments that point predominantly along the b-axis with a small component along the a-axis that hints at possible anisotropic exchange coupling (consistent with the crystal structure). Measurements of the magnetic Bragg reflections in an applied magnetic field suggest a spin-flop transition takes place between 2 T and 4 T in which moments likely flop to point along the crystallographic a-axis. Our measurements indicate that CsO2 is an interesting example of magnetic properties being inherently linked to the crystal structure, in that the staggered displacement of the cesium ions activates antisymmetric exchange which then permits the observed spin canting.