Neutron diffraction, magnetic and magnetoelectric studies of trirutile Fe₂TeO₆

The polycrystalline Fe₂TeO₆ synthesized following solid state reaction route is subjected to temperature dependent (300K-5K) neutron powder diffraction study. Temperature dependent structural (P42/mnm) study is done by Reitveld refinement of the diffraction data. The magnetic moment of Fe³⁺ is found to be ordered in the G-type antiferromagnetic structure and the antiferromagnetic transition is seen at ∼ 210K. The Fe³⁺ octahedral is observed to be distorted in terms of different octahedral angles. The temperature variation of octahedral bond length and the super-exchange angles shows anomalous behaviour around the magnetic transition. Temperature dependent magnetisation study shows a broad antiferromagnetic transition at ∼ 233K before the sharp antiferromagnetic fall at TN ∼ 210K. Presence of ferroelectricity and magnetoelectric (ME) coupling is confirmed by magnetic field dependent polarization versus electric field (PE) loop study using remanent protocol at room temperature (RT)