Incommensurate interactions and nonconventional spin-Peierls transition in TiOBr

Title data

van Smaalen, Sander ; Palatinus, Lukas ; Schönleber, Andreas:
Incommensurate interactions and nonconventional spin-Peierls transition in TiOBr.
In: Physical Review B. Vol. 72 (2005) Issue 2 . - No. 020105.
ISSN 0163-1829
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.72.020105

Project information

Abstract in another language

Temperature-dependent x-ray diffraction of the low-dimensional spin-1∕2 quantum magnet TiOBr shows that the phase transition at Tc2=47.1(4)K corresponds to the development of an incommensurate superstructure. Below Tc1=26.8±0.3K the incommensurate modulation locks in into a twofold superstructure similar to the low-temperature spin-Peierls state of TiOCl. Frustration between intra- and interchain interations within the spin-Peierls scenario, and competition between the two-dimensional magnetic order and one-dimensional spin-Peierls order are discussed as possible sources of the incommensurability.