Synthesis, crystal structure and magnetic properties of the new one-dimensional manganate Cs3Mn2O4

Cs(3)Mn(2)O(4), a new member of the small family of ternary manganese (II/III) mixed-valent compounds, has been synthesized via the azide/nitrate route and studied using powder and single crystal X-ray diffraction, magnetic susceptibility measurements and density functional theory (DFT). Its crystal structure (P2(1)/c, Z = 8, a = 1276.33(1) pm, b = 1082.31(2) pm, c = 1280.29(2) pm, β = 118.390(2)°) is based on one-dimensional MnO(2)(1.5-) chains built up from edge-sharing MnO(4) tetrahedra. The title compound is the first example of an intrinsically doped transition metalate of the series A(x)MnO(2), (A = alkali metal) where a complete 1:1 charge ordering of Mn(2+) and Mn(3+) is observed along the chains (-Mn(2+)-Mn(3+)-Mn(2+)-Mn(3+)-). From the magnetic point of view it basically consists of ferrimagnetic MnO(2) chains, where the Mn(2+) and Mn(3+) ions are strongly antiferromagnetically coupled up to high temperatures. Very interestingly, their long-range three-dimensional ordering below the Néel temperature (T(N)) ~12 K give rise to conspicuous field dependent magnetic ordering phenomena, for which we propose a consistent picture based on the change from antiferromagnetic to ferromagnetic coupling between the chains. Electronic structure calculations confirm the antiferromagnetic ordering as the ground state for Cs(3)Mn(2)O(4) and ferrimagnetic ordering as its nearly degenerate state.