Simultaneous antiferromagnetic Fe3+ and Nd3+ ordering in NdFe3(11BO3)4

By means of magnetic susceptibility and specific heat measurements, x-ray and unpolarized neutron diffraction investigations on powder and single-crystal samples, simultaneous long-range antiferromagnetic Fe and Nd ordering in NdFe3(11BO3)4 with R32 chemical structure has been found at temperatures below TN = 30.5(5) K down to 1.6 K. At temperatures down to 19 K the propagation vector is khex = [0,0,3/2] and becomes slightly incommensurate at lower temperatures. Combined with symmetry analysis, best powder neutron profile fits are obtained with magnetic spiral configurations with the magnetic moments oriented parallel to the hexagonal basal plane according to the irreducible representations τ3 in the commensurate case. This is in agreement with the easy directions of magnetization perpendicular to the c-axis as determined by magnetic susceptibility measurements. At 1.6 K the magnetic Fe moment amounts to 4.9 μB close to the free ion moment of Fe3+. The magnetic Nd3+ moment saturates presumably due to crystal-field effects at 2.7 μB.