Magnetic anisotropy in FeSb studied by 57Fe Mössbauer spectroscopy

• Highly stoichiometric Fe1+xSb.
• Large anisotropy of the Fe hyperfine field.
• Deformation of the Fe-plane.

The Fe1+xSb compound has been synthesized close to stoichiometry with x=0.023(8). The compound was investigated by 57Fe Mössbauer spectroscopy in the temperature range 4.2–300 K. The antiferromagnetic ordering temperature was found as 232 K i.e. much higher than for the less stoichiometric material. Regular iron was found to occupy two different positions in proportion 2:1. They differ by the electric quadrupole coupling constants and both of them exhibit extremely anisotropic electric field gradient tensor (EFG) with the asymmetry parameter η≈1η≈1. The negative component of both EFGs is aligned with the c-axis of the hexagonal unit cell, while the positive component is aligned with the 〈120〉 direction. Hence, a model describing deviation from the NiAs P63/mmc symmetry group within Fe-planes has been proposed. Spectra in the magnetically ordered state could be explained by introduction of the incommensurate spin spirals propagating through the iron atoms in the direction of the c-axis with a complex pattern of the hyperfine magnetic fields distributed within a–b plane. Hyperfine magnetic field pattern of spirals due to major regular iron is smoothed by the spin polarized itinerant electrons, while the minor regular iron exhibits hyperfine field pattern characteristic of the highly covalent bonds to the adjacent antimony atoms. The excess interstitial iron orders magnetically at the same temperature as the regular iron, and magnetic moments of these atoms are likely to form two-dimensional spin glass with moments lying in the a–b plane. The upturn of the hyperfine field for minor regular iron and interstitial iron is observed below 80 K. Magneto-elastic effects are smaller than for FeAs, however the recoilless fraction increases significantly upon transition to the magnetically ordered state.