NMR and dc-susceptibility studies of NaVGe2O6

TL;DR

This study investigates the magnetic properties of NaVGe2O6 using NMR and susceptibility measurements, revealing a low-temperature antiferromagnetic transition and a magnetic excitation gap.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed NMR and susceptibility analysis of NaVGe2O6, identifying a transition to an antiferromagnetic phase and a magnetic excitation gap.

Findings

Antiferromagnetic transition at 18 K

Formation of a magnetic excitation gap of about 12 K

Evidence of a low-temperature ordered magnetic phase

Abstract

We report the results of measurements of the dc magnetic susceptibility chi(T) and of the 23Na nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) response of NaVGe2O6, a material in which the V ions form a network of interacting one-dimensional spin S=1 chains. The experiments were made at temperatures between 2.5 and 300 K. The chi(T) data suggest that the formation of the expected low-temperature Haldane phase is intercepted by an antiferromagnetic phase transition at 18 K. The transition is also reflected in the 23Na NMR spectra and the corresponding spin-lattice relaxation rate 1/T1(T). In the ordered phase, 1/T1(T) decreases by orders of magnitude with decreasing temperature, indicating the formation of a gap of the order of 12 K in the magnetic excitation spectrum.