- By:
- Rathnayaka, Srimal; Daemen, Luc ; Hong, Tao ; Chi, Songxue ; Calder, Stuart A; Schneeloch, John; Cheng, Yongqiang ; Li, Bing ; Louca, Despina
- Journal Name:
- Physical Review B
- Page Number:
- 104426-104426
- Volume:
- 112
- Publication Date:
- September 18, 2025
- View DOI Listing:
- https://doi.org/10.1103/qrnx-rs3h
Abstract
The ilmenite NiTiO3 consists of a buckled honeycomb lattice, with the Ni spins aligned ferromagnetically in-plane and antiferromagnetically out-of-plane. Using neutron spectroscopy, the magnetic structure and the dynamics were investigated as a function of temperature. Dispersive acoustic bands and nearly dispersionless optical bands at ≈3.7 meV are described by a highly anisotropy Heisenberg model with stronger antiferromagnetic (AFM) out-of-plane, weaker ferromagnetic (FM) in-plane interactions and an anisotropy gap of 0.95 meV. The order parameter yields a critical exponent between the Heisenberg and two-dimensional Ising models, consistent with highly anisotropic Heisenberg systems. The frustration parameter ≈2 supports a weakly frustrated system.
