Investigation of magnetic structures and ion diffusion in layered honeycomb alkali-ion battery materials

The layered ternary oxide system has been intensively studied in the past as it exhibits various remarkable properties, such as its electrochemical behavior as positive electrode of alkali-ion batteries, interesting thermoelectric properties for high sodium content, or even superconductivity for hydrated compositions. The lamellar structure is one of the key points to explain all these wide range of physical properties. Moreover transition metal octahedra forms honeycomb which the interplay between nearest-neighbor antiferromagnetic (AFM) and next-nearest neighbor AFM is expected to produce rich magnetic properties with exotic magnetic ground states. The general context of this study is the investigation of new honeycomb transition metal oxides, in connection with their potential exotic magnetic states and battery cathode properties.