A neutron diffraction demonstration of long-range magnetic order in the quasicrystal approximant DyCd6

Abstract

We have used neutron powder diffraction to demonstrate the existence of long-range antiferromagnetic order of Ising-like Dy moments in the DyCd6 quasicrystal approximant phase. This cubic compound undergoes a slight distortion to a monoclinic cell at low temperatures. The Néel temperature is 18.0(2) K and the magnetic order of the Dy sublattice may be described in the parent cubic Im3¯ structure using a combination of two propagation vectors, k1 = [0 0 0] and k2 = [12 0 12], yielding ‘anti-I’ order. Alternatively, when referred to the monoclinic C2/c cell, the magnetic structure may be described by a single propagation vector: k = [1 0 0].