Inorganic Chemistry, Vol.50, No.9, 3988-3995, 2011
Fe-Site Substitution Effect on the Structural and Magnetic Properties in SrFeO2
We investigated the Fe-site substitution effect on the structural and magnetic properties of the infinite layer iron oxide Sr(Fe1-xMx)O-2 (M = Co, Mn) using synchrotron X-ray diffraction, neutron diffraction, and Fe-57 Mossbauer spectroscopy. Both systems have a similar solubility limit of x approximate to 0.3, retaining the ideal infinite layer structure with a space group of P4/mmm. For the Fe-Co system, both in-plane and out-of-plane axes decrease linearly and only slightly with x, reflecting the ionic radius difference between Fe2+ and Co2+. For the Fe-Mn system the lattice evolution also follows Vegard's law but is anisotropic: the in-plane axis increases, while the out-of-plane decreases prominently. The magnetic properties are little influenced by Co substitution. On the contrary, Mn substitution significant reduction and a large distribution of the hyperfine field frustration induced presumably by a ferromagnetic out-of-plane drastically destabilizes the G-type magnetic order, featured by a in the Mossbauer spectra, which suggests the presence of magnetic Mn-Fe interaction.