Single crystal growth and magnetic properties of strong geometric frustrated magnetic pyrochlore Dy2Ti2O7

Abstract

Large, high quality single crystals of Dy2Ti2O7 have been successfully grown by the floating zone technique in an infrared image furnace. The obtained single crystal has been characterized by X-ray diffraction at room temperature and is shown to have the face centred cubic structure, Fd3m, with a room temperature lattice parameter a＝1.0112(2) nm. The full-width at half-maximum of rocking curves of ［111］ and ［400］ Bragg peaks are 0.07° and 0.05°, respectively. Magnetic susceptibility measurements give a Van Vleck paramagnetic parameter of 2.46×10-5m3/mol, the effective moment μeff＝10.24(4)μB and Cure-Weiss temperature ΘCW＝1.1 K, indicating weak ferromagnetism for the Dy2Ti2O7 single crystal. The comparative studies of the experiment and theoretical analysis reveal that the long-ranged dipole-dipole interactions dominate the magnetic behaviors of this kind of spin ice system, and the dipolar energy scale Dnn=3.00 K.