Magnetic properties of the one-dimensional Ca3Co2O6

The magnetic properties of Ca3Co2O6 have been studied by magnetic susceptibility and neutron diffraction methods from 5K to room temperature. Magnetic ordering occurs below 24+/-2K. Above 80K, the Curie Weiss law is followed and an effective magnetic moment of 5.7+/-0.2 mu(B) was found. The magnetic structure of Ca3Co2O6 has been refined from Rietveld analysis of powder neutron diffraction data at 10K. The one dimensional chains in Ca3Co2O6 were found to have alternating low magnetic moment (0.08+/-0.04 mu(B)) for the octahedral cobalt and high magnetic moment (3.00+/-0.05 mu(B)) for the trigonal prismatic cobalt ions. Magnetic moments close to zero were indicated in the ab-plane. Ca3Co2O6 is ferrimagnetic at low temperatures, with ferromagnetic ordering dominating within the Co-O chains. In high magnetic fields, above around 2.7MAm(-1), a field-induced transition from ferrimagnetic to ferromagnetic structure occurs, implying turning of the spins in one chain. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd