Interplay of Disorder and Antiferromagnetism in TlFe1.6+δ(Se1−xSx)2probed by Neutron Scattering

The effect of selenium substitution by sulphur on the structural and physical properties of antiferromagnetic TlFe1.6+delta Se-2 has been investigated via neutron, x-ray and electron diffraction, and transport measurements. The root 5a x root 5a x c super-cell related to the iron vacancy ordering found in the pure TlFe1.6Se2 selenide is also present in the S-doped TlFe1.6+delta(Se1-xSx)(2) compounds. Neutron scattering experiments show the occurrence of the same long range magnetic ordering in the whole series i.e. the 'block checkerboard' antiferromagnetic structure. In particular, this is the first detailed study where the crystal structure and the root 5a x root 5a antiferromagnetic structure is characterized by neutron powder diffraction for the pure TlFe1.6+delta S2 sulphide over a large temperature range. We demonstrate the strong correlation between occupancies of the crystallographic iron sites, the level of iron vacancy ordering and the occurrence of block antiferromagnetism in the sulphur series. Introducing S into the Se sites also increases the Fe content in TlFe1.6+delta(Se1-xSx)(2) which in turn leads to the disappearance of the Fe vacancy ordering at x = 0.5 +/- 0.15. However, by reducing the nominal Fe content, the same root 5a x root 5a x c vacancy ordering and antiferromagnetic order can be recovered also in the pure TlFe1.6+delta S2 sulphide with a simultaneous reduction in the Neel temperature from 435 K in the selenide TlFe1.75Se2 to 330 K in the sulphide TlFe1.5S2. The magnetic moment remains high at low temperature throughout the full substitution range, which contributes to the absence of superconductivity in these compounds.