Wolframite-type MnMoO4: Magnetization, sintering by Cool-SPS, and magnetodielectric effect
Abstract
Dense ceramic samples of wolframite-type MnMoO 4 (w-MnMoO 4) have been prepared by Cool-SPS (Spark Plasma Sintering) for the first time with the goal of investigating the magnetic, dielectric, and magneto-electric properties of this thermally fragile polymorph of MnMoO 4. Earlier studies found that w-MnMoO 4 converts to the structurally different α-MnMoO 4 phase if heated in air at 873 K, thus hindering fabrication of w-MnMoO 4 ceramics by conventional high-temperature sintering. Unsintered powder samples, which were prepared via a hydrothermal method, and dense ceramics elaborated by Cool-SPS have the same magnetic properties. Magnetic susceptibilities display Curie-Weiss behaviour, χ = C/(T-θ), with effective moments for Mn 2+ ion μ eff ≈ 5.9 μ B / Mn-atom and negative Weiss temperatures θ ≈-96 to-98 K. Unlike the isostructural multiferroic compounds MnW 1-x Mo x O 4 (0 ≤ x < 0.3) which exhibits at least two successive magnetic transitions below 15 K, w-MnMoO 4 undergoes only one paramagnetic-to-antiferromagnetic transition at T N ≈ 32 K. The field-dependent magnetization at 2 K shows a spin-flop transition at μ 0 H SF ≈ 2 T. Capacitance and dielectric losses obtained for a ceramic between 2 and 300 K in zero field and in a field of 9 T reveal several weak anomalies. Dielectric anomalies are observed at the magnetic phase transition, suggesting a magnetoelectric coupling. Qualitatively different dielectric and magnetodielectric behaviours occur in α-MnMoO 4 ceramics at low temperature.
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