Neutron diffraction study of the BiFeO₃ spin cycloid at low temperature

The reported observation of two anomalies in the intensity of the magnon Raman peaks of BiFeO₃ at 140 and 200 K (Singh et al 2008 J. Phys.: Condens. Mater 20 252203; Cazayous et al 2008 Phys. Rev. Lett. 101 037601) led to the hypothesis that such anomalies might originate from a spin reorientation transition. In order to test this hypothesis, we have used temperature-dependent neutron diffraction to track the evolution of the magnetic configuration in single crystals of BiFeO₃. Our results indicate that there is no average reorientation of the spins. This suggests that the magnon anomalies may instead be related to the freezing of modes that do not alter the average projection of the spins over the plane of the cycloid, as also reported for multiferroic TbMnO₃ (Senff et al 2006 J. Phys.: Condens. Mater 18 2069).