Noncollinear antiferromagnetic order in the buckled honeycomb lattice of magnetoelectric Co 4 Ta 2 O 9 determined by single-crystal neutron diffraction
Co 4 Ta 2 O 9 exhibits a three-dimensional magnetic lattice based on the buckled honeycomb motif. It shows unusual magnetoelectric effects, including the sign change and nonlinearity. These effects cannot be understood without the detailed knowledge of the magnetic structure. Herein, we report neutron diffraction and direction-dependent magnetic susceptibility measurements on Co 4 Ta 2 O 9 single crystals. In this work, below 20.3 K, we find a long-range antiferromagnetic order in the alternating buckled and flat honeycomb layers of Co 2+ ions stacked along the c axis. Within experimental accuracy, the magnetic moments lie in the ab plane. They form a canted antiferromagnetic structure with a tilt angle of ~14° at 15 K in the buckled layers, while the magnetic moments in each flat layer are collinear. This is directly evidenced by a finite (0, 0, 3) magnetic Bragg peak intensity, which would be absent in the collinear magnetic order. The magnetic space group is C2/c'. It is different from the previously reported C2/c' group, also found in the isostructural Co 4 Nb 2 O 9 . The revised magnetic structure successfully explains the major features of the magnetoelectric tensor of Co 4 Ta 2 O 9 within the framework of the spin-flop model.