Intrinsic susceptibility and bond defects in the novel 2D frustrated antiferromagnet Ba$_{2}$Sn$_{2}$ZnCr$_{7p}$Ga$_{10-7p}$O$_{22}$

Abstract

We present microscopic and macroscopic magnetic properties of the highly frustrated antiferromagnet Ba$_{2}$Sn$_{2}$ZnCr$_{7p}$Ga$_{10-7p}$O$_{22}$, respectively probed with NMR and SQUID experiments. The $T$-variation of the intrinsic susceptibility of the Cr$^{3+}$ frustrated kagomé bilayer, $χ_{kag}$, displays a maximum around 45 K. The dilution of the magnetic lattice has been studied in detail for $0.29 \leq p \leq0.97$. Novel dilution independent defects, likely related with magnetic bond disorder, are evidenced and discussed. We compare our results to SrCr$_{9p}$Ga$_{12-9p}$O$_{19}$. Both bond defects and spin vacancies do not affect the average susceptibility of the kagomé bilayers.

Published in Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 217202 (2004). Only minor changes as compared to previous version. 4 pages, 4 figures