Magnetic structure study of the sawtooth chain antiferromagnet $$\hbox {Fe}_2\hbox {Se}_2\hbox {O}_7$$
Kazuhiro Nawa, Maxim Avdeev, Peter S. Berdonosov, Alexey V. Sobolev, Igor A. Presniakov, Andrey Aslandukov, Ekaterina S. Kozlyakova, A. N. Vasiliev, И. В. Щетинин, T. Sato
Abstract
A magnetic structure of the sawtooth-chain antiferromagnet [Formula: see text] was investigated by magnetization measurements, single crystalline and powder neutron diffraction experiments, and a further analysis on the Mössbauer spectra. These experiments revealed a nearly collinear antiferromagnetic structure with magnetic moments aligned along the b-axis, indicating dominant antiferromagnetic exchanges between Fe(1)-Fe(2) and Fe(2)-Fe(3) sites. The magnon dispersion relation derived from the linear spin wave approximation suggests the possible flat band nature of magnons.