Thermodynamic, electromagnetic, and lattice properties of antiperovskite Mn3SbN

Abstract

The physical properties of polycrystalline Mn3SbN were investigated using measurements of the magnetic, calorimetric, and electronic transport properties. At room temperature, the phase crystallizes in a tetragonal structure with P 4 / m m m symmetry. A remarkably sharp peak in the heat capacity versus temperature curve was found near 353 K. The peak reaches 723 J mol-1 K-1 at its highest, which corresponds to a transition entropy of 10.2 J mol-1 K-1. The majority of the large entropy change appears to be due to lattice distortion from the high-temperature cubic structure to the room-temperature tetragonal structure and the accompanying Ferrimagnetic transition. © 2013 Ying Sun et al.