Magnetic soft modes in the distorted triangular antiferromagnet -CaCr2O4

Abstract

-CaCr2O4 is a spin-3/2, distorted triangular lattice antiferromagnet with a simple 120 spin structure that masks the complex pattern of exchange interactions. The magnetic excitation spectrum has been measured using inelastic neutron scattering on powder and single crystal samples. It reveals unusual low energy modes which can be explained by linear spin-wave theory assuming nearest and next-nearest neighbor interactions. The mode softening is due to the next-nearest neighbor interactions and indicates a new magnetic phase nearby as revealed by the phase diagram constructed for this system. The extracted direct exchange interactions correlate well with the Cr3+{Cr3+ distances and are in agreement with other chromium oxide delafossite compounds.