Single crystal and magnetic structures of maricite-type AgMnVO4

Abstract

Single crystals of the ternary manganese vanadate AgMnVO4, were grown using AgVO3 flux. The structure was determined from single crystal X-ray diffraction data. The magnetic structure and properties of AgMnVO4 were characterized by magnetic susceptibility, specific heat, and low-temperature neutron powder diffraction measurements. AgMnVO4 crystallizes in the maricite-type structure with space group Pnma, a=9.5393(12), b=6.8132(9), c=5.3315(7)Å and Z=4. AgMnVO4 contains MnO4 chains made up of edge-sharing MnO6 octahedra, and these chains are interlinked by the VO4 and AgO4 tetrahedra. The specific heat measurements indicate a 3D-antiferromagnetic ordering at ~12.1K and the neutron powder diffraction measurements at 5K show that the Mn2+magnetic moments are antiferromagnetically coupled within the chains which are antiferromagnetically coupled to each other.