Structural modulations in multiferroic tetragonal tungsten bronze KxMnxFe1+xF3

Abstract

Multiferroic materials showing coupling of the different order parameters (ferroelectric, ferromagnetic, ferroelastic) are interesting not only from a fundamental perspective, but also from a technological point of view, e.g. for to the development of new storage technologies. However, the coexistence of (ferro)magnetism and ferroelectricity is considered a rare phenomenon. Whilst this may be true for perovskite oxides, where emptyd-shells favor the off-centering of ions but counteract magnetism, this intrinsic limitation can be avoided by moving to different structure types, and/or away from oxides. An example of non-perovskite, non-oxide multiferroic systems are the tetragonal tungsten bronze (TTB) fluorides KxM2+xM3+1+xF3(x= 0.4 – 0.6), which show coexistence of electric and magnetic ordering 1. Here we present a detailed structural study on a series of TTB fluorides, KxMnxFe1+xF3(x = 0.4 – 0.55). KMnFeF6has been previously described as tetragonalP42bcand orders ferrimagnetically belowT = 148 K 2. Additional satellite reflections were found in transmission electron microscopy experiments and attributed to ferroelastic domains arising from tilting ofMF6octahedra, but the reported bulk powder XRD measurements indicated only tetragonal symmetry 3. We used high-resolution powder diffraction techniques to reinvestigate the crystal structure as a function of temperature in comparison with DSC data. Our results reveal a structural distortion to orthorhombic symmetry (Ccc2) at room temperature, which diminished when moving to the end members of the series (x → 0.4 andx → 0.6). Although structurally subtle, this distortion may indicate a ferroelectric state, similar to KxFeF3, where ferroelectricity is observed only in the orthorhombic phase. On heating, an anomaly in thec-axis lattice parameter accompanies a phase transition to centrosymmetricP42/mbcaround 320 – 350 K, marking the transition from ferroelectric – paraelectric state.