Crystal growth and characterization of the magnetic properties of intercalated transition metal dichalcogenides

The intercalated transition metal dichalcogenide (TMDC) Cr_1/3NbS₂ has attracted significant interest in recent years due to reports of a magnetic soliton lattice in this material in finite fields. This novel topological state of matter is understood to result from competing Zeeman, Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya and ferromagnetic exchange terms in the spin Hamiltonian. Despite this theoretical understanding, there are few other experimental realizations of soliton lattice materials beyond the singular compound Cr_1/3NbS₂. With this motivation in mind, we have undertaken a concerted effort at Illinois to grow large single crystals of additional intercalated TMDCs, and characterize them with a series of techniques, including magnetization, heat capacity, x-ray and neutron scattering. In this talk, I will report on these data and their implications for the magnetic ground states for each of the materials studied. In particular, I will report on our use of powder x-ray diffraction and magnetization to infer information about the centrosymmetry of the structure in these materials, and thus the potential for DM interactions. I will supplement with neutron diffraction from single crystals to comment on ordered ground states, and their potential to contain soliton phases in finite fields.