Thermal evolution of quasi-one-dimensional spin correlations within the anisotropic triangular lattice of α - NaMnO 2
Magnetic order on the spatially anisotropic triangular lattice of α-NaMnO 2 is studied via neutron diffraction measurements. The transition into a commensurate, collinear antiferromagnetic ground state with k=(0.5,0.5,0) was found to occur below T N =22 K. Above this temperature, the transition is preceded by the formation of a coexisting, short-range ordered, incommensurate state below TIC=45 K whose two-dimensional propagation vector evolves toward k=(0.5,0.5) as the temperature approaches T N . At high temperatures (T>T IC ), quasielastic scattering reveals one-dimensional spin correlations along the nearest-neighbor Mn-Mn “chain direction” of the MnO 6 planes. Here, our data are consistent with the predictions of a mean-field model of Ising-like spins on an anisotropic triangular lattice, as well as the predominantly one-dimensional Heisenberg spin Hamiltonian reported for this material.