Spin waves and the origin of commensurate magnetism in Ba2CoGe2O7 -: art. no. 024428

The square-lattice antiferromagnet Ba2CoGe2O7 is studied by means of neutron diffraction and inelastic scattering. This material is isostructural to the well-known Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya helimagnet Ba2CuGe2O7 but exhibits commensurate long-range Neel order at low temperatures. Measurements of the spin wave dispersion relation reveal strong in-plane anisotropy that is the likely reason for the suppression of helimagnetism.