Structure and magnetism in the bond-frustrated spinel ZnCr2Se4

The crystal and magnetic structures of stoichiometric ZnCr2Se4 have been investigated using synchrotron x-ray and neutron powder diffraction, muon spin relaxation (μSR), and inelastic neutron scattering. Synchrotron x-ray diffraction shows a spin-lattice distortion from the cubic Fd¯3m spinel to a tetragonal I41/amd lattice below TN = 21 K, where powder neutron diffraction confirms the formation of a helical magnetic structure with magnetic moment of 3.04(3)μB at 1.5 K, close to that expected for high-spin Cr3+. μSR measurements show prominent local spin correlations that are established at temperatures considerably higher ( 100μs−1) muon relaxation rates are suggestive of rapid site hopping of the muons in static field. Inelastic neutron scattering measurements show a gapless mode at an incommensurate propagation vector of k = [000.4648(2)] in the low-temperature magnetic ordered phase that extends to 0.8 meV. The dispersion is modeled by a two-parameter Hamiltonian, containing ferromagnetic nearest-neighbor and antiferromagnetic next-nearest-neighbor interactions with a Jnnn/Jnn = −0.337.