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Abstract |
We report on the magnetic and structural properties of La2Ni(Ni1/3Sb2/3)O6 in polycrystal, single crystal and thin film samples. We found that this material is a ferrimagnet ( T c ≈ 100 K ) which possesses a very distinctive and uncommon feature in its virgin curve of the hysteresis loops. We observe that bellow 20 K it lies outside the hysteresis cycle, and this feature was found to be an indication of a microscopically irreversible process possibly involving the interplay of competing antiferromagnetic interactions that hinder the initial movement of domain walls. This initial magnetic state is overcome by applying a temperature dependent characteristic field. Above this field, an isothermal magnetic demagnetization of the samples yield a ground state different from the initial thermally demagnetized one. |
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