NONCOLLINEAR MAGNETIC-STRUCTURE OF MNTE2

The crystallographic and magnetic properties of the MnTe2 compound hav e been investigated by Te-125 Mossbauer spectroscopy and by neutron di ffraction on both powder and single-crystal samples. From TN down to 4 .2 K, the single-crystal experiment, performed in an external magnetic field up to H=4 T, strongly supports the conclusion that the magnetic structure is noncollinear with the magnetic moments of the four manga nese ions of the unit cell pointing along the body diagonals of the cu be (mu(Mn)parallel to[111]) which correspond to their local axes, as s hown from Mossbauer spectroscopy.