Magnetic ordering in the pyrochlore Ho2CrSbO7 determined from neutron diffraction, and the magnetic properties of other RE2CrSbO7 phases (RE=Y, Tb, Dy, Er)

AbstractThe magnetic structure of the pyrochlore Ho2CrSbO7, which orders magnetically below 13K, has been studied using neutron powder diffraction. Ho2CrSbO7 is found to form an “ordered spin-ice structure” where the magnetic moments are constrained along the 111 axes, but with a ferromagnetic moment in one direction. The Cr3+ ions order ferromagnetically and this is thought to lift the degeneracy of the x, y and z directions in the cubic structure causing the ferromagnetic component from the Ho3+ ions to align. The pyrochlores RE2CrSbO7 where RE=Y, Tb, Dy and Er have also been prepared and studied using SQUID magnetometry