The effect of partial substitution of Ni by Mg on the structural, magnetic and spectroscopic properties of the double perovskite Sr2NiTeO6

Abstract

In this report, the structural, magnetic and spectroscopic properties of the freeze-drying synthesized Sr₂Ni_1−xMg_xTeO₆ (x = 0.0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3 and 0.5) oxides are analyzed by means of X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD) and neutron powder diffraction (NPD), electron paramagnetic resonance, diffuse reflectance and magnetic susceptibility. The XRPD and NPD data analysis using the mode-crystallography approach have revealed that at room temperature (RT), all the compositions are monoclinically distorted with the space group I2/m. The high and low temperature analyses have shown that these materials suffer a series of three structural phase transitions. The EPR results have shown that the spectra of all the compositions are centred at g ≈ 2.28, indicating a slightly distorted octahedral environment of Ni²⁺, which is in agreement with the crystal structure analysis. The increase of the Mg²⁺ content in Sr₂Ni_1−xMg_xTeO₆, provokes a decrease of the dipolar interaction effects and thus, the resonance becomes narrower. This resonance does not completely disappear which leads to the idea that the long-range magnetic order is not completely established when x ≥ 0.3. The substitution of the Ni²⁺ (S = 1) ions by Mg²⁺ (S = 0) ions, also induces a weakening of the antiferromagnetic interactions, which is reflected in the diminishing of the absolute value of θ and the Néel temperature T_N. The magnetic structure determination revealed the existence of an antiferromagnetic coupling for x- and z-spin components of the nickel atoms.