Revisiting Mn4Al11: Growth of Stoichiometric Single Crystals and Their Structural and Magnetic Properties

Khalaniya, Roman A.; Mironov, Andrei V.; Samarin, Alexander N.; Bogach, Alexey V.; Kulchu, Aleksandr N.; Shevelkov, Andrei V.

doi:10.3390/cryst15080714

Open AccessArticle

Revisiting Mn₄Al₁₁: Growth of Stoichiometric Single Crystals and Their Structural and Magnetic Properties

by

Roman A. Khalaniya

¹,

Andrei V. Mironov

¹,

Alexander N. Samarin

²

,

Alexey V. Bogach

^1,2,

Aleksandr N. Kulchu

¹ and

Andrei V. Shevelkov

^1,*

¹

Department of Chemistry, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow 119991, Russia

²

Prokhorov General Physics Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow 119991, Russia

^*

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Crystals 2025, 15(8), 714; https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst15080714

Submission received: 4 July 2025 / Revised: 23 July 2025 / Accepted: 2 August 2025 / Published: 4 August 2025

(This article belongs to the Section Crystalline Metals and Alloys)

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Abstract

Stoichiometric single crystals of Mn₄Al₁₁ were synthesized from the elements using Sn as a flux. The crystal structure of Mn₄Al₁₁ was investigated using single crystal X-ray diffraction and showed a complex triclinic structure with a relatively small unit cell and interpenetrating networks of Mn and Al atoms. While our results generally agree with the previously reported data in the basic structure features such as triclinic symmetry and structure type, the atomic parameters differ significantly, likely due to different synthetic techniques producing off-stoichiometry or doped crystals used in the previous works. Our structural analysis showed that the view of the Mn substructure as isolated zigzag chains is incomplete. Instead, the Mn chains are coupled in corrugated layers by long Mn-Mn bonds. The high quality of the crystals with the stoichiometric composition also enabled us to study magnetic behavior in great detail and reveal previously unobserved magnetic ordering. Our magnetization measurements showed that Mn₄Al₁₁ is an antiferromagnet with T_N of 65 K. The presence of the maximum above T_N also suggests strong local interactions indicative of low-dimensional magnetic behavior, which likely stems from lowered dimensionality of the Mn substructure.

Keywords: intermetallics; magnetism; single crystal growth; structural analysis

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MDPI and ACS Style

Khalaniya, R.A.; Mironov, A.V.; Samarin, A.N.; Bogach, A.V.; Kulchu, A.N.; Shevelkov, A.V. Revisiting Mn₄Al₁₁: Growth of Stoichiometric Single Crystals and Their Structural and Magnetic Properties. Crystals 2025, 15, 714. https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst15080714

AMA Style

Khalaniya RA, Mironov AV, Samarin AN, Bogach AV, Kulchu AN, Shevelkov AV. Revisiting Mn₄Al₁₁: Growth of Stoichiometric Single Crystals and Their Structural and Magnetic Properties. Crystals. 2025; 15(8):714. https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst15080714

Chicago/Turabian Style

Khalaniya, Roman A., Andrei V. Mironov, Alexander N. Samarin, Alexey V. Bogach, Aleksandr N. Kulchu, and Andrei V. Shevelkov. 2025. "Revisiting Mn₄Al₁₁: Growth of Stoichiometric Single Crystals and Their Structural and Magnetic Properties" Crystals 15, no. 8: 714. https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst15080714

APA Style

Khalaniya, R. A., Mironov, A. V., Samarin, A. N., Bogach, A. V., Kulchu, A. N., & Shevelkov, A. V. (2025). Revisiting Mn₄Al₁₁: Growth of Stoichiometric Single Crystals and Their Structural and Magnetic Properties. Crystals, 15(8), 714. https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst15080714

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Revisiting Mn₄Al₁₁: Growth of Stoichiometric Single Crystals and Their Structural and Magnetic Properties

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