Magnetic Properties of Cr5S6 in Chromium Sulfides

Abstract

Several samples of CrS_x with 1.145<x_x materials arises from the presence of the Cr₅S₆ phase. The magnetization curves for x=1.194 demonstrated the following salient properties of the Cr₅S₆ phase: a ferrimagnetic Curie point of 305°K, a peak magnetization of 6.9 emu/gm in an external field of 8500 oe, a ferrimagnetic‐antiferromagnetic transition over a 5° temperature interval, a transition temperature in the neighborhood of 158°K which is subject both to thermal hysteresis and to shifting by an external magnetic field, and an antiferromagnetic susceptibility below this transition. The transition temperature, as well as the peak magnetization, decreases with increasing chromium content. A simple model is tentatively proposed, and appears to be consistent with the observed behavior.