Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol.132, No.16, 5751-5760, 2010
FexPb4-xSb4Se10: A New Class of Ferromagnetic Semiconductors with Quasi 1D {Fe2Se10} Ladders
A new family of quasi-one-dimensional ferromagnetic selenides with general formula FexPb4-xSb4Se10 (0 <= x <= 2) was generated by isoelectronic substitution in octahedral positions of Pb atoms by Fe within the structure of Pb4Sb4Se10. Two members of this family with x = 0.75 and x= 1 were synthesized as a single phase through direct combination of the elements at 823 K. Single crystal X-ray diffraction revealed that Fe0.75Pb3.25Sb4Se10 crystallizes with the orthorhombic space group Pnma, whereas Fe0.96Pb3.04Sb4Se10 adopts the lower symmetry monoclinic subgroup P2(1)/m (#11). Both compounds are isomorphous with Pb4Sb4Se10, and their crystal structures consist of corrugated layers of edge-sharing bicapped trigonal prisms and octahedra around Pb atoms. Adjacent layers are interconnected by NaCl-type {SbSe} ribbons. The voids left by this arrangement are filled by the novel one-dimensional {Fe2Se10} double chains (ladder) of edge-sharing octahedra running along [010]. Temperature dependent magnetic susceptibility as well as field dependent magnetization isotherms showed that both Fe0.75Pb3.25Sb4Se10 and FePb3Sb4Se10 are ferromagnetic below 300 K and exhibit superparamagnetism at higher temperatures. A dramatic reduction in the magnetic moment per Fe2+, similar to 0.40 mu(B), was observed in Fe0.75Pb3.25Sb4Se10 and FePb3Sb4Se10 suggesting that the FexPb4-xSb4Se10 (0 <= x <= 2) phases are not ordinary ferromagnets where all the magnetic spins are parallel at low temperatures. Analysis of the magnetic coupling of spins located on adjacent Fe atoms (within a localized Fe2+ moment picture) using Goodenough-Kanamori rules suggested that the magnetism within the ladder and ladder-single chain systems in FexPb4-xSb4Se10 phases is controlled by competing interactions.