Synthesis and Structural Characterization of Geometrically Frustrated Doube Perovskites

In geometrically frustrated materials, magnetic order is inhibited by the arrangement of magnetic ions. Typically seen with triangular or tetrahedrally coordinated moments favoring antiparallel (antiferromagnetic) alignment, frustrated materials exhibit a variety of magnetic ground states due to the cancellation of normally dominant interactions, providing a window into exotic physics, and thus have attracted great research interest.
Double perovskites of composition A₂BB′O₆, with ’rock-salt’ order of magnetic B’ ions, potentially exhibit frustration. In addition, the chemical versatility of perovskites enables the synthesis of many different compounds with divergent properties, providing great potential to yield new insights into frustration physics.
We report the solid-state synthesis and x-ray structural characterization of Ba₂YbMoO₆, Ba₂YWO₆, Ba₂LuWO₆, Ba₂ScMoO_6, and Sr₂ScMoO₆. All but the latter crystallize in the ideal cubic Fm-3m double perovskite structure, while Sr₂ScMoO₆ was refined in the tetragonal I4/m space group, as expected from their respective Goldschmidt tolerance factors.