Relieving the frustration through Mn3+ substitution in Holmium Gallium Garnet

Abstract

We present a study on the impact of Mn3+ substitution in the geometrically frustrated Ising garnet Ho3Ga5O12 using bulk magnetic measurements and low temperature powder neutron diffraction. We find that the transition temperature, TN = 5.8 K, for Ho3MnGa4O12 is raised by almost 20 when compared to Ho3Ga5O12. Powder neutron diffraction on Ho3MnxGa5-xO12 (x = 0.5, 1) below TN shows the formation of a long range ordered ordered state with k = (0,0,0). Ho3+ spins are aligned antiferromagnetically along the six crystallographic axes with no resultant moment while the Mn3+ spins are oriented along the body diagonals, such that there is a net moment along [111]. The magnetic structure can be visualised as ten-membered rings of corner-sharing triangles of Ho3+ spins with the Mn3+ spins ferromagnetically coupled to each individual Ho3+ spin in the triangle. Substitution of Mn3+ completely relieves the magnetic frustration with f = CW/TN ~ 1.1 for Ho3MnGa4O12.