Unusual ferromagnetic critical behavior owing to short-range antiferromagnetic correlations in antiperovskite Cu1-xNMn3+x (0.1 ≤ x ≤ 0.4)

• DOI: 10.1038/srep07933
• Publication Date: 2015-01-21T10:13:24Z
• Authors: Jianchao Lin; Peng Tong; Dapeng Cui; Cheng Yang; Jie Yang; Shuai Lin; Bosen Wang; Wei Tong; Lei Zhang; Youming Zou; Yuping Sun
• Keywords: Condensed Matter - Strongly Correlated Electrons; Condensed Matter - Materials Science; 0103 physical sciences; 01 natural sciences; Article

For ferromagnets, varying from simple metals to strongly correlated oxides,the critical behaviors near the Curie temperature (T(C)) can be grouped into several universal classes. In this paper, we report an unusual critical behavior in manganese nitrides Cu(1-x)NMn(3+x) (0.1 ≤ x ≤ 0.4). Although the critical behavior below T(C) can be well described by mean field (MF) theory, robust critical fluctuations beyond the expectations of any universal classes are observed above T(C) in x = 0.1. The critical fluctuations become weaker when x increases, and the MF-like critical behavior is finally restored at x = 0.4. In addition, the paramagnetic susceptibility of all the samples deviates from the Curie-Weiss (CW) law just above T(C). This deviation is gradually smeared as x increases. The short-range antiferromagnetic ordering above T(C) revealed by our electron spin resonance measurement explains both the unusual critical behavior and the breakdown of the CW law.