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Orbital and magnetic ordering in the weak ferromagnet vanadium trifluoride VF3

Reinhard K. Kremer1,*, Florian Kraus2,†, Patrick Woidy2, Gwilherm Nénert3,‡,§, Christina Drahten4,∥,¶, and Bachir Ouladdiaf3,**

  • *Contact author: R.Kremer@fkf.mpg.de
  • †Contact author: f.kraus@uni-marburg.de
  • ‡Contact author: gwilherm.nenert@malvernpanalytical.com
  • §Present address: Malvern Panalytical B.V. Lelyweg 1, 7602 EA Almelo, The Netherlands.
  • ∥Contact author: christina.drahten@thermofisher.com
  • Present address: Thermo Fisher Scientific GmbH, Im Steingrund 4, 63303 Dreieich, Germany.
  • **Contact author: ouladdia@ill.fr
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Phys. Rev. B 113, 054442 – Published 25 February, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/3gzm-yxfb

Abstract

We report on an investigation of the low-temperature structural, thermal, and magnetic properties of the binary trifluoride VF3 by temperature-dependent magnetization, heat capacity, electron paramagnetic resonance, and synchrotron powder and neutron powder diffraction measurements. At room temperature the crystal structure of VF3 features V3+ spin S = 1 regular triangular layers. At ∼120K VF3 undergoes a structural phase transition, and at ∼18K it undergoes an antiferromagnetic phase transition. The structural phase transition involves a minute orthorhombic distortion of the regular octahedral fluorine coordination shell of the trivalent V cations, effecting a distortion to the monoclinic crystal system. The magnetic phase transition generates a weak ferromagnet with V magnetic moments essentially confined to the trigonal planes of the room temperature structure described in the space group R−3c. The ordered magnetic moments of the V3+ cations amount to ≈1μB and is thus distinctly reduced from the spin-only magnetic moment of 2μB. This finding and the weak ferromagnetic moment are discussed in view of the low-symmetry structure and spin-orbit effects on the 3T1 cubic ground term of the V3+ d2 system.

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References (31)

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Outline

Information

Phys. Rev. B 113, 054442– Published 25 February, 2026
  • Received 6 November 2025
  • Revised 20 January 2026
  • Accepted 23 January 2026
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI. Open access publication funded by Max Planck Society.

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