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Antiferromagnetic structure and magnetic properties of Dy2O2Te: An isostructural analog of the rare-earth superconductors R2O2Bi

The rare-earth compounds R2O2Bi (R=Tb, Dy, Er, Lu, Y) are newly discovered superconductors in the vicinity of a rare-earth magnetic long-range order. In this work, we determine the magnetic order of the parent compound Dy2O2Te by neutron scattering as the A-type antiferromagnetic structure below the Néel temperature TN=9.7K. The large staggered magnetic moment 9.4(1) μB per Dy at T=3.5K lies in the basal ab plane. In a magnetic field, anomalous magnetic properties including the bifurcation between zero-field- and field-cooling magnetization, a butterfly-shaped magnetic hysteresis, and slow magnetic relaxation emerge, which are related to the field-induced metamagnetic transitions in Dy2O2Te. Our experimental findings could stimulate further research on the relation between antiferromagnetism and superconductivity in these rare-earth compounds.