Phase transitions, partial disorder and multi-<i>k</i>structures in Gd₂Ti₂O₇

Abstract

The geometrically frustrated antiferromagnet Gd2Ti2O7 exhibits magnetic behaviour of such complexity that it poses a challenge to both experiment and theory. Magnetic ordering commences at TN = 1.1 K and there is a further magnetic phase transition at K. Here we use neutron diffraction to definitively establish the nature of the phase transition at and the magnetic structure adopted below this temperature. Between and TN the structure is partly ordered, as previously reported. Below the remaining spins order, but only weakly. The magnetic structure in this temperature range is shown to be a 4-k structure, closely related to the 1-k structure previously suggested. The 4-k and 1-k variants of the structure are distinguished by analysis of the diffuse scattering, which we believe represents a new method of solving the 'multi-k' problem of magnetic structure determination.