Abstract

ZnCr2Se4 spinel single crystals doped with neodymium ions having concentrations of 0.05, 0.08 and 0.10 and occupying tetrahedral positions were synthesized using chemical vapour transport. Thermal analysis as well as electrical conductivity, magnetic isotherm, and magnetic susceptibility measurements showed thermal stability at higher temperatures, semiconducting behavior with a metal-insulator transition at TMI ≥ 330 ​K, an antiferromagnetic order with a Néel temperature TN ​= ​21.5 ​K, a short-range ferromagnetic interactions evidenced by a positive Curie-Weiss temperature θ ​= ​55, 60 and 68 ​K with increasing Nd-content in the sequence 0.05, 0.08 and 0.10, two critical fields Hc1 and Hc2 at 10 and 60 ​kOe, regardless of the Nd-content. The specific heat studies showed more complex magnetic transitions, i.e. two magnetic transitions at TN and at spin-glass temperature (TSG) for the Nd-poorer samples and only one magnetic transition at TN for Nd-richer ones. These effects are interpreted in terms of the superexchange integrals for the first two coordination spheres including chemical bond length and spin fluctuation.

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