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The discovery of novel magnetic and electronic properties in low-dimensional materials has led to the pursuit of hierarchical materials with specific substructures. Low-dimensional solids are highly anisotropic by nature and show promise in new quantum materials leading to exotic physical properties not realized in three-dimensional materials. We have the opportunity to extend our synthetic strategy of the flux-growth method to designing single crystalline low-dimensional materials in bulk. The goal of this Account is to highlight the synthesis and physical properties of several low-dimensional intermetallic compounds containing specific structural motifs that are linked to desirable magnetic and electrical properties. We turned our efforts toward intermetallic compounds consisting of antimony nets because they are closely linked to properties such as high carrier mobility (the velocity of an electron moving through a material under a magnetic field) and large magnetoresistance (the change in resistivity with an applied magnetic field), both of which are desirable properties for technological applications. The SmSb2 structure type is of particular interest because it is comprised of rectangular antimony nets and rare earth ions stacked between the antimony nets in a square antiprismatic environment. LnSb2 (Ln = La-Nd, Sm) have been shown to be highly anisotropic with SmSb2 exhibiting magnetoresistance of over 50000% for H∥c axis and ~2400% for H∥ab. Using this structure type as an initial building block, we envision the insertion of transition metal substructures into the SmSb2 structure type to produce ternary materials. We describe compounds adopting the HfCuSi2 structure type as an insertion of a tetrahedral transition metal-antimony subunit into the LnSb2 host structure. We studied LnNi1-xSb2 (Ln = Y, Gd-Er), where positive magnetoresistance reaching above 100% was found for the Y, Gd, and Ho analogues. We investigated the influence of the transition metal sublattice by substituting Ni into Ce(Cu1-xNix)ySb2 (y < 0.8) and found that the material is highly anisotropic and metamagnetic transitions appear at ~0.5 and 1 T in compounds with higher Ni concentration. Metamagnetism is characterized by a sharp increase in the magnetic response of a material with increasing applied magnetic field, which was also observed in LnSb2 (Ln = Ce-Nd). We also endeavored to study materials that possess a transition metal sublattice with the potential for geometric frustration. An example is the La2Fe4Sb5 structure type, which consists of antimony square nets and an iron-based network arranged in nearly equilateral triangles, a feature found in magnetically frustrated systems. We discovered spin glass behavior in Ln2Fe4Sb5 (Ln = La-Nd, Sm) and evidence that the transition metal sublattice contributes to the magnetic interactions of Ln2Fe4Sb5. We investigated the magnetic properties of Pr2Fe4-xCoxSb5 (x < 2.3) and found that as the Co concentration increases, a second magnetic transition leads from a localized to an itinerant system. The La2Fe4Sb5 structure type is quite robust and allows for the incorporation of other transition metals, thereby making it an excellent candidate to study competing magnetic interactions in lanthanide-containing intermetallic compounds. In this manuscript, we aim to share our experiences of bulk intermetallic compounds to inspire the development of new low-dimensional materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study details the structural characterization of glycolide-h4 as a function of pressure to 6 GPa using neutron powder diffraction on the PEARL instrument at ISIS Neutron and Muon source. Glycolide-h4, rather than its deuterated isotopologue, was used in this study due to the difficulty of deuteration. The low background afforded by zirconia-toughened alumina anvils nevertheless enabled the collection of data suitable for structural analysis to be obtained to a pressure of 5 GPa. Glycolide-h4 undergoes a reconstructive phase transition at 0.15 GPa to a previously identified form (II), which is stable to 6 GPa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Magnetic honeycomb iridates are thought to show strongly spin-anisotropic exchange interactions which, when highly frustrated, lead to an exotic state of matter known as the Kitaev quantum spin liquid. However, in all known examples these materials magnetically order at finite temperatures, the scale of which may imply weak frustration. Here we show that the application of a relatively small magnetic field drives the three-dimensional magnet β-Li2IrO3 from its incommensurate ground state into a quantum correlated paramagnet. Interestingly, this paramagnetic state admixes a zig-zag spin mode analogous to the zig-zag order seen in other Mott-Kitaev compounds. The rapid onset of the field-induced correlated state implies the exchange interactions are delicately balanced, leading to strong frustration and a near degeneracy of different ground states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compounds adopting the Yb3Rh4Sn13 structure type have drawn attention because of the revelation of exotic states such as heavy fermion behavior, superconductivity, charge density wave, and quantum critical behavior. The prototypical structure has historically been modeled with a primitive cubic space group, Pm3̅n; however, structural studies have led to the realization of disordered atomic sites, requiring lower symmetry models. We will review the low symmetry models required to describe the structural distortions in the related Yb3Rh4Sn13 structure type. In addition, we present the structure determination of a new analogue, Lu3Ir4Ge13, which adopts a new structural model in I41/amd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report the crystal growth of well-faceted single crystals of methylammonium lead iodide, CH3NH3PbI3, and detailed single crystal neutron diffraction structural studies aimed at elucidating the orientation of the methylammonium (CH3NH3+) cation in the tetragonal and cubic phases of the hybrid inorganic-organic perovskite. Room temperature experiments reveal a tetragonal structure where the protonated amine substituent (−NH3+) of the cation is disordered in four positions, each preferentially located near the neighboring iodine of the [PbI6] octahedra, while the methyl substituent (−CH3) is disordered in eight positions located near the body position of the unit cell. High temperature experiments show a cubic structure where the cation aligns along the [011] (edge), the [111] (diagonal), and the [100] (face) directions of the unit cell. The resulting site occupancy ratio suggests the CH3NH3+ cation resides primarily along the [011] direction, in agreement with reported DFT calculations. One important feature that was observed for both tetragonal and cubic structures measured at 295 and 350 K, respectively, is the middle point of the C-N bond being located off-center from the high symmetry sites in the crystal structure, induced by the formation of hydrogen bond-like interactions between the −NH3+ substituent of the organic cation and the iodine atoms of [PbI6] octahedra. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Single crystals of Yb3(Rh1-xTx )4Ge13 (T = Co, Ir) have been grown using the self-flux method. Powder x-ray diffraction data on these compounds are consistent with the cubic structure with space group Pm3n. Intermediate-valence behavior is observed in Yb3(Rh1-xTx )4Ge13 upon T = Co doping, while T = Ir doping drives the system into a heavy-fermion state. Antiferromagnetic order is observed in the Ir-doped samples Yb3(Rh1-xTx )4Ge13 for 0.5 < x ⩽ 1 with TN = 0.96 K for Yb3Ir3Ge13. With decreasing x, the magnetic order is suppressed towards a quantum critical point around Xc = 0.5, accompanied by non-Fermi-liquid behavior evidenced by logarithmic divergence of the specific heat and linear temperature dependence of the resistivity. The Fermi-liquid behavior is recovered with the application of large magnetic fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]