Effect of nonmagnetic substitution on the magnetic correlation of the frustrated Ca 3 CoMn 1-x Ga x O 6 (0x0.2) Gaoshang Gong a , Chenfei Shi a , Jinjin Guo a , Gebru Zerihun b , Yongqiang Wang a , Yang Qiu c , Yuling Su a, * a School of Physics and Electronic Engineering, Zhengzhou University of Light Industry, Zhengzhou, 450002, People’s Republic of China b Department of Physics, College of Natural and Computational Science, Debre Markos University, Debre Markos, 269, Ethiopia c Henan Key Laboratoryof Advanced Micro/Nano Functional Materials, School of Physics and Electronic Engineering, Xinyang Normal University, Xinyang, 464000, People’s Republic of China article info Article history: Received 29 August 2019 Received in revised form 14 November 2019 Accepted 18 November 2019 Available online xxx Keywords: Magnetic order Spin frustrated Antiferromagnetic abstract For the spin-chain compound Ca 3 CoMnO 6 , the perfect Co/Mn ionic order causes the lost of [[YY long- range antiferromagnetic order. The lost long-range magnetic order results in the emergence of short range magnetic correlation interaction, forming the so called “order by disorder” phenomenon. In pre- sent paper, nonmagnetic Ga 3þ -doped Ca 3 CoMn 1-x Ga x O 6 compounds were prepared. The influence of Ga 3þ substitution on the structure and magnetic order of Ca 3 CoMn 1-x Ga x O 6 were investigated. It is found that the solid solubility of Ga 3þ cation in Ca 3 CoMn 1-x Ga x O 6 is 0.2 < x < 0.3. With introducing of Ga 3þ cation, the oxidation state of some Co cations changes from Co 2þ to Co 3þ . Magnetization measurements reveal that doped with nonmagnetic Ga 3þ weakens the formation of short range magnetic order and enhances the antiferromagnetic transition temperature. As a result, more robust long rang antiferro- magnetic order is established and the transition field that causes the [[YY spin state of CoeMneCoeMn chain to [[Y[ state increases obviously. Meanwhile, the shortened short range magnetic correlation in Ga 3þ doped Ca 3 CoMn 1-x Ga x O 6 can be driven more easily by the thermal activation energy and a quicker dynamic behavior was observed in time windows. © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The spin frustrated compounds have attracted a lot of attention due to the complex magnetic interaction and exotic physical properties such as spin glasses, spin ices and spin liquids [1e4]. As for the quasi-one-dimensional Ca 3 CoMO 6 (M ¼ Co, Rh and Ir), the crystal structure is built of chains of face-sharing CoO 6 trigonal prisms and MO 6 octahedra (M ¼ Co, Rh, Ir, Mn) stacked along the c axis [5]. The different chains are separated by Ca cations and triangular lattice is formed [6]. While the M sites are occupied by different cations, the different electronic states cause Ca 3 CoMO 6 compounds exhibit different magnetic behaviors [5]. The repre- sentative one is Ca 3 Co 2 O 6 , for which both the trigonal prism sites and octahedral sites are occupied by Co 3þ cations [7]. The high spin state Co 3þ cations (S ¼ 2) located at the trigonal prism sites and the low spin state Co 3þ cations (S ¼ 0) located at the octahedral sites arrange alternately, intrachain ferromagnetic interaction is resulted [8,9]. The incompatibility of triangular lattice structure in ab-plane and the antiferromagnetic interchain interaction gives rise to peculiar magnetic behavior such as (1) partially disordered anti- ferromagnetic state; (2) time-dependent magnetization steps; (3) the existence of spin freezing below 10 K [10e13]. Simultaneously, the Co 3þ cations of Ca 3 Co 2 O 6 can be also substituted by Mn 4þ cations and the most interesting condition occurs while half of the Co 3þ cations are replaced [14]. To keep the equilibrium of chemical valence, the remained Co 3þ ions change to Co 2þ ions [15]. Due to that the smaller Mn ions occupy the octa- hedral sites preferentially, the alternate arrangement of Co 2þ (S ¼ 1/2) cations and Mn 4þ cations (S ¼ 3/2) well establishes the Co 2þ -Mn 4þ -Co 2þ -Mn 4þ ionic/charge order [16]. As a result, [[YY spin order of Ca 3 CoMnO 6 can be expected at low temperature [15]. The contracted distance between ferromagnetic coupled Co/Mn neighbors and the stretched distance between the antiferromag- netic coupled Co/Mn neighbors could break the inversion sym- metry, typical magnetism-driven ferroelectricity was observed * Corresponding author. E-mail address: Suylstaff@126.com (Y. Su). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Alloys and Compounds journal homepage: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jalcom https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jallcom.2019.153099 0925-8388/© 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Journal of Alloys and Compounds xxx (xxxx) xxx Please cite this article as: G. Gong et al., Effect of nonmagnetic substitution on the magnetic correlation of the frustrated Ca 3 CoMn 1-x Ga x O 6 (0x0.2), Journal of Alloys and Compounds, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jallcom.2019.153099