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Magnetic structure of the edge-sharing copper oxide chain compound NaCu2O2

Single-crystal neutron diffraction has been used to determine the incommensurate magnetic structure of NaCu2O2, a compound built up of chains of edge-sharing CuO4 plaquettes. Magnetic structures compatible with the lattice symmetry were identified by a group-theoretical analysis, and their magnetic structure factors were compared to the experimentally observed Bragg intensities. In conjunction with other experimental data, this analysis yields an elliptical helix structure in which both the helicity and the polarization plane alternate among copper-oxide chains. This magnetic ground state is discussed in the context of the recently reported multiferroic properties of other copper-oxide chain compounds.