Neutron diffraction study on manganese telluride

Abstract

A neutron diffraction study of manganese telluride has been made using powder specimen. The specimen has been carefully checked by high temperature X-ray analysis and has been proved to be free from MnO and MnTe2 which are apt to contaminate the specimen. This investigation has shown that the magnetic structure of MnTe consists of ferromagnetic sheets in c-planes which are coupled antiferromagnetically along the c-axis. The d irection of spins lies within the ferromagnetic sheet. The magnetic form factor of Mn ions in MnTe has been found to be very close to the experimental values obtained by Corliss and others. The most probable value of the spin quantum number is obtained by neutron diffraction data as 4.6/2 and by the measurement of the magnetic susceptibility as 5.05/2. It implies that the maganese ion in MnTe has five unpaired electrons