Magnetic properties of compounds in the system CaBaCo4−x−yZnxAlyO7 (x=0,1,2, y=0,1) Original Research Article

The magnetic properties of four compounds in the series CaBaCo4−x−yZnxAlyO7 (x=0,1,2, y=0,1) were investigated. Using AC-susceptibility and DC-magnetometry, magnetic transitions (Tfs) were found for all four compositions in the range 50–3 K. The data from the AC measurements proved to be frequency dependent: Tf increases with higher frequencies. An energy-loss in the magnetic coupling, indicated as contributions in the imaginary part of the magnetic susceptibility (χ″), was seen for every compound and its maximum appeared just below the maximum χ′. Modelling the data with Arrhenius-, Vogel–Fulcher-, and the power-law made it possible to relate the four compounds to spin-glass materials. The Casimir-du Pré relation was used to extract average relaxation times at Tf. The DC magnetisations clearly show differences between field-cooled and zero-field-cooled measurements. None of the compounds exhibit any metamagnetic properties up to 8 T. A new method is presented to calculate the saturation fields using DC data. Relaxation measurements on three compounds indicate that the systems relax very fast, in contrast to spin-glasses. Aging does not affect the fast relaxations. The compounds are interpreted as disordered anti-ferromagnets with spin-glass features.