Chapter 4 - Magnetic Structures

Neutron scattering is the most powerful tool for the detailed study of magnetic structures and is an essential step in understanding underlying physical phenomena occurring in complex magnetic materials. The main goal of this chapter is to expose the reader to the current state of how magnetic structures are determined using neutron diffraction and how they are described. The chapter includes a short history of the beginnings of magnetic structure determination, theoretical and practical aspects in determining magnetic structures, and offers important examples of magnetic structures hierarchized on the basis of the dimensionality of magnetic correlations determined by the underlying crystal structure. The selected examples range from simple ferro- and antiferromagnetic orders to the more complex helical and conical spiral orders, commensurate and incommensurate.