Comparative study of the structural and magnetic properties of Mn1/3NbS2 and Cr1/3NbS2

We compare the magnetism of single crystals of the intercalated transition metal dichalcogenides Cr1/3NbS2 and Mn1/3NbS2 using techniques such as dc and ac susceptibility and Lorentz transmission electron microscopy (LTEM). We present a detailed structural investigation of these materials using electron and single-crystal x-ray diffraction measurements to show how substitutional disorder and stacking faults can manifest in Cr1/3NbS2 and Mn1/3NbS2, and give rise to additional superlattice reflections in diffraction patterns acquired from Mn1/3NbS2. Magnetic susceptibility and LTEM measurements show Cr1/3NbS2 displays chiral helimagnetism below its magnetic ordering temperature (T-C) of 111 K, while there is no evidence that Mn1/3NbS2 exhibits helimagnetic ordering below its transition temperature T-C = 45 K.