Past exam of the condensed matter physics course of the University of Oxford / 2021 / 1

Determining antiferromagnetic magnetic order is a good reason to use neutron scattering. The neutron has a magnetic dipole moment, so its scattering amplitude includes the spatial arrangement of electronic magnetic moments. Alternating magnetic moments can produce magnetic neutron diffraction peaks even when there is no change of the nuclear crystal structure. Ordinary nonresonant X-ray diffraction primarily measures the electron density, and is much less sensitive to this magnetic order.

The neutron is nonrelativistic at this kinetic energy. Its de Broglie wavelength isIn elastic scattering, Bragg's law gives $2d\sin \theta =\lambda$. The measured total deflection is $2\theta$, so it must be halved before taking the sine. The reflection order is absorbed into the Miller indices of the diffracting lattice planes. In the order of the four measured rings, the interplanar spacings areThe last digits give the numerical calculation, rather than accuracy beyond the supplied angular precision.

For the cubic crystal system, the Miller indices satisfyThe inverse squared interplanar spacings have ratios approximately $1:2.004:3.012:4.010$. With the lattice constant close to $0.4\mathrm{nm}$, the appropriate squared-index sums are $1,2,3,4$. Thus the four powder diffraction rings areThe braces collect all symmetry-related lattice planes with the same interplanar spacing. In particular, $(100)$ is forbidden for both a body-centered cubic lattice and a face-centered cubic lattice, but occurs for a primitive cubic lattice. These observations identify the Bravais lattice as primitive cubic lattice, with a multi-atom atomic basis, consistent with a perovskite structure.

Each ring independently gives $a_j=d_j\sqrt{j}$:Their average is $0.42413\mathrm{nm}$. Allowing for the rounded measured angles, a suitable final value isA larger centred unit cell could relabel reflections, but would conflict with the stated approximate lattice constant.

An applied magnetic field changes the alignment of the manganese magnetic moments. The component of their magnetic structure factor perpendicular to the scattering vector contributes to magnetic neutron diffraction. A field-induced uniform magnetization has the same translational periodicity as the nuclear crystal structure, so its scattering amplitude can occur at the existing reciprocal lattice vectors. The diffraction wave intensities can therefore change without moving the peaks. Their angular positions still measure the same interplanar spacings. This mechanism does not require a measurable change of the lattice constant.

A consistent mechanism is a transition to G-type antiferromagnetism at the Néel temperature. On the manganese primitive cubic lattice, take the magnetic moments to beEvery nearest neighbour has the opposite magnetic moment. The nuclear crystal structure can retain its original lattice constant, while the magnetic order introduces the propagation wavevectorSumming the scattering amplitude from the magnetic moments over sites gives peaks at $\mathbf{q}=\mathbf{G}+\mathbf{Q}$, where $\mathbf{G}$ is a nuclear reciprocal lattice vector. Thus all three components of the new Miller indices, expressed relative to the original unit cell, are half-integers. The two smallest squared magnitudes in units of $(2\pi /a{)}^2$ areThe first predicts $2\theta \simeq 21.29^{\circ }$, agreeing with the new ring. The next squared magnitude is $19/4$, outside the measured angular range. Taking the observed first magnetic ring as the calibration, Bragg's law predictsUsing the independently fitted lattice constant gives $41.42^{\circ }$, within the input rounding. One ring alone does not uniquely determine a magnetic order; this proposed nearest-neighbour antiferromagnetic pattern explains both the observed ring and the count of two new rings in the specified interval.