Multiple spectra of electron spin resonance in chiral molecule-based magnets networked by a single chiral ligand

A molecule-based magnet [Cr(CN)6][Mn(R/S)-pnH(H2O)](H2O) (termed R/S-GN) is a chiral crystal without an inversion center and mirror reflection, and its structural network is constructed using a chiral ligand diaminopropane (R/S)-pn. In S-GN, multiple spectra of ESR were observed below the magnetic ordering temperature by Morgunov et al. [Phys. Rev. B 77, 184419 (2008)]. They concluded that the phenomenon at the high field side occurred because the incommensurate magnetic structure resulted in a length-controllable superlattice of domain walls (the so-called chiral soliton lattice, CSL) under a dc magnetic field H applied perpendicular to the magnetic chiral axis. However, there multiple spectra were observed even for H nearly parallel to the chiral axis, a-axis, and their interpretation is unreasonable. Thus, we conducted an X-band electron spin resonance (ESR) measurement of R-GN under conditions similar to those of their experiment and performed Fourier spectrum analyses for the data of R-GN as an approach of physical characterization. By using two Lorentz spectra, the main ESR spectra for H // a were reproduced, and furthermore two prominent periodic modes were found by spectrum analyses based on Fourier transform. Two characteristic periods, p1 and p2 (<p1), are related by p1 = 2p2, and the temperature dependence of the multiplicity can be physically characterized with those of p1 and p2. The unique spectra observed below the magnetic ordering temperature are due not to hyperfine structure but magnetic fine structure, and it certainly originates from the existence of plural nonequivalent magnetic sites. Thus, it is unreasonable to consider CSL to explain the multiple ESR spectra observed independently of the field direction, whereas the observed complex spectra appeal wealthy scientific potentiality in chiral crystals.