XY-like incommensurate magnetic order in Ce2⁢SnS5

Abstract

We report the synthesis of single crystals of Ce2⁢SnS5 through a two-stage chemical vapor transport method. The Ce2⁢SnS5 system is a member of the orthorhombic Pbam (No. 55) space group and realizes a distorted trigonal tricapped prism (TTP) crystal field around each cerium site. We characterized the sample through orientation-dependent magnetization and heat capacity measurements to probe the magnetic anisotropy in the system characteristic of XY-like anisotropic Heisenberg model behavior. Ce2⁢SnS5 furthermore enters a zero-field ordered phase under 𝑇𝑁=2.4K; powder neutron diffraction measurements reveal incommensurate magnetic order near 𝑇𝑁. The system then locks into a commensurate, two-𝑞 magnetic structure below approximately 1.2K. This commensurate structure belongs to the Shubnikov group 𝑃⁢𝑏′⁢𝑎′⁢𝑚′⁡(MSG55.359) and realizes the propagation vectors ⃗𝑞=(1/3,0,0) and ⃗𝑞=(0,0,0).