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Materials with a 5d4 electronic configuration are generally considered to have a nonmagnetic ground state (J = 0). Interestingly, Sr2YIrO6 (Ir5+ having 5d4 electronic configuration) was recently reported to exhibit long-range magnetic order at low temperature and the distorted IrO6 octahedra were discussed to cause the magnetism in this material. Hence, a comparison of structurally distorted Sr2YIrO6 with cubic Ba2YIrO6 may shed light on the source of magnetism in such Ir5+ materials with 5d4 configuration. Besides, Ir5+ materials having 5d4 are also interesting in the context of recently predicted excitonic types of magnetism. Here we report a single-crystal-based analysis of the structural, magnetic, and thermodynamic properties of Ba2YIrO6. We observe that in Ba2YIrO6 for temperatures down to 0.4 K, long-range magnetic order is absent but at the same time correlated magnetic moments are present. We show that these moments are absent in fully relativistic ab initio band-structure calculations; hence, their origin is presently unclear. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cubic double perovskite Ba2 YIrO6 has been investigated by the local probe techniques nuclear magnetic resonance (89Y NMR) and muon spin rotation (μ SR). Both methods confirm the absence of magnetic long-range order in this compound but find evidence for diluted localized paramagnetic moments. NMR spin-lattice relaxation rate T1-1 measurements suggest a slowing down of localized spin moments at low temperatures. An increase of the μ SR spin-lattice relaxation rate λ confirms the presence of weak magnetism in Ba2 YIrO6. However, these findings cannot be explained by the recently suggested excitonic type of magnetism. Instead, they point towards tiny amounts of localized paramagnetic spin centers leading to this magnetic response on the background of a simple nonmagnetic ground state of the 5d4 (J = 0) electronic configuration of Ir5+. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, the iridate double perovskite Sr2YIrO6 has attracted considerable attention due to the report of unexpected magnetism in this Ir5+ (5d4) material, in which according to the Jeff model, a nonmagnetic ground state is expected. However, in recent works on polycrystalline samples of the series Ba2-xSrxYIrO6 no indication of magnetic transitions have been found. We present a structural, magnetic, and thermodynamic characterization of Sr2YIrO6 single crystals, with emphasis on the temperature and magnetic field dependence of the specific heat. As determined by x-ray diffraction, the Sr2YIrO6 single crystals have a cubic structure, with space group Fm3m. In agreement with the expected nonmagnetic ground state of Ir5+ (5d4) in Sr2YIrO6, no magnetic transition is observed down to 430 mK. Moreover, our results suggest that the low-temperature anomaly observed in the specific heat is not related to the onset of long-range magnetic order. Instead, it is identified as a Schottky anomaly caused by paramagnetic impurities present in the sample, of the order of n~0.5(2)%. These impurities lead to non-negligible spin correlations, which nonetheless, are not associated with long-range magnetic ordering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]