Armchair-kagome and Pyrochlore Mn2Sb2O7

When prepared by standard high-temperature solid state synthesis, Mn2Sb2O7 forms in a unique chiral kagome-based structure, characterized by a novel Mn4 armchair motif intermediate between the triangles of a kagome plane and the tetrahedra of the pyrochlore structure. There are two magnetic ordering transitions at low temperature, one of which is multiferroic. The magnetic order is chiral. I will discuss our findings, and compare this material against its more-frustrated pyrochlore polymorph, which can be obtained through a low-temperature synthesis route.