Canted Antiferromagnetism on Rectangular Layers of Fe2+ in Polymorphic CaFeSeO

From stoichiometric amounts of CaO, Fe, and Se, pure powders and single crystals of quaternary Ca[FeSe2/2O2/2]∞2 can be obtained by solid-state reaction and self-flux growth, respectively. The as-synthesized compound exhibits a polymorphic crystal structure, where the two modifications have different stacking sequences of [FeSe2/2O2/2]2−∞2 layers. The two polymorphs have similar unit cells but different crystal symmetries (Cmc21 and Pnma), of which the former is non-centrosymmetric. Fe is divalent (d6) and high-spin, as proven by X-ray spectroscopy, Mossbauer spectroscopy, and powder neutron diffraction data. The latter two, in combination with magnetic susceptibility and specific heat data…