Synthesis and magnetic structure of the layered manganese oxide selenide Sr2MnO2Ag1.5Se2

Abstract

The synthesis of a high-purity sample of the layered oxide selenide Sr2MnO2Ag1.5Se2 is reported. At ambient temperature it crystallises in the space group I4/mmm with two formula units in the unit cell and lattice parameters a=4.08771(1) Å, c=19.13087(8) Å. The compound displays mixed-valent manganese in a formal oxidation state close to +2.5 and powder neutron diffraction measurements reveal that below the Néel temperature of 63(1) K this results in an antiferromagnetic structure which may be described as A-type, modelled in the magnetic space group PI4/mnc (128.410 in the Belov, Neronova and Smirnova (BNS) scheme) in which localised Mn moments of 3.99(2) μB are arranged in ferromagnetic layers which are coupled antiferromagnetically. In contrast to the isostructural compound Sr2MnO2Cu1.5S2, Sr2MnO2Ag1.5Se2 does not display long range ordering of coinage metal ions and vacancies, nor may significant amounts of the coinage metal readily be deintercalated using soft chemical methods.