Abstract
Phys. Rev. B 73, 144513 (2006) Neutron diffraction was used to determine the crystal structure and magnetic
ordering pattern of a La2CuO4 single crystal, with and without applied magnetic
field. A previously unreported, subtle monoclinic distortion of the crystal
structure away from the orthorhombic space group Bmab was detected. The
distortion is also present in lightly Sr-doped crystals. A refinement of the
crystal structure shows that the deviation from orthorhombic symmetry is
predominantly determined by displacements of the apical oxygen atoms. An
in-plane magnetic field is observed to drive a continuous reorientation of the
copper spins from the orthorhombic b-axis to the c-axis, directly confirming
predictions based on prior magnetoresistance and Raman scattering experiments.
A spin-flop transition induced by a c-axis oriented field previously reported
for non-stoichiometric La2CuO4 is also observed, but the transition field (11.5
T) is significantly larger than that in the previous work.