Probing 1D Magnetism in Lanthanide Formate Oxalate Frameworks

Coordination frameworks built from connecting metal centres with organic ligands are ideal hosts for low dimensional magnetic behaviour, which is of significant interest due to the exotic states associated with it. We have recently shown that the Ln(HCO2)3 phases can host strong Ising-like 1D ferromagnetic order, which combined with frustrated triangular antiferromagnetic coupling between neighbouring chains, gives rise to unique forms of magnetic order at low temperature. The Ln(HCO2)(C2O4) frameworks adopt a closely related structure to the Ln(HCO2)3 phases but with symmetry lowering, likely to affect their extent of magnetic frustration and zig-zag chains, which may affect the orientation of the Ising-like anisotropy. We propose to study the diffuse magnetic scattering in Tb(HCO2)(C2O4) and Ho(HCO2)(C2O4) to provide insight into the local magnetic correlations in these materials.