Crystal growth and characterization of the magnetic properties of intercalated transition metal dichalcogenides

ORAL

Abstract

The intercalated transition metal dichalcogenide (TMDC) Cr1/3NbS2 has attracted significant interest in recent years due to reports of a magnetic soliton lattice in this material in finite fields. This novel topological state of matter is understood to result from competing Zeeman, Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya and ferromagnetic exchange terms in the spin Hamiltonian. Despite this theoretical understanding, there are few other experimental realizations of soliton lattice materials beyond the singular compound Cr1/3NbS2. With this motivation in mind, we have undertaken a concerted effort at Illinois to grow large single crystals of additional intercalated TMDCs, and characterize them with a series of techniques, including magnetization, heat capacity, x-ray and neutron scattering. In this talk, I will report on these data and their implications for the magnetic ground states for each of the materials studied. In particular, I will report on our use of powder x-ray diffraction and magnetization to infer information about the centrosymmetry of the structure in these materials, and thus the potential for DM interactions. I will supplement with neutron diffraction from single crystals to comment on ordered ground states, and their potential to contain soliton phases in finite fields.

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Presenters

  • Kannan Lu

    • University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Authors

  • Kannan Lu

    • University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

  • Deepak Sapkota

    • The University of Tennesse, Knoxville

  • Adam Aczel

    • Oak Ridge National Laboratory
    • Oak Ridge National Lab
    • Neutron Scattering Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
    • Oakridge National Lab

  • Lisa DeBeer-Schmitt

    • Oak Ridge National Laboratory
    • Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, USA
    • Neutron Scattering Science Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
    • Oak Ridge National Lab
    • Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, USA

  • Yan Wu

    • Oak Ridge National Lab
    • Oak Ridge National Laboratory

  • David Mandrus

    • Physics, University of Tennessee
    • Materials Science and Engineering, The University of Tennessee
    • Department of Materials Science & Engineering, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
    • The University of Tennesse, Knoxville
    • University of Tennessee
    • Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Tennessee
    • Oak Ridge National Laboratory
    • Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Tennessee Knoxville
    • Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Tennessee
    • University of Tennessee, Knoxville
    • Material Science and Technology Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
    • Material Science and Technology Division, Oak Ridge National Lab

  • Greg MacDougall

    • University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
    • University of Illinois