  We examine the evolution of magnetic properties in the normal spinel oxides
Mg(1-x)Cu(x)Cr2O4 using magnetization and heat capacity measurements. The
end-member compounds of the solid solution series have been studied in some
detail because of their very interesting magnetic behavior. MgCr2O4 is a highly
frustrated system that undergoes a first order structural transition at its
antiferromagnetic ordering temperature. CuCr2O4 is tetragonal at room
temperature as a result of Jahn-Teller active tetrahedral Cu^2+ and undergoes a
magnetic transition at 135 K. Substitution of magnetic cations for diamagnetic
Mg^2+ on the tetrahedral A site in the compositional series Mg(1-x)Cu(x)Cr2O4
dramatically affects magnetic behavior. In the composition range 0 < x < 0.3,
the compounds are antiferromagnetic. A sharp peak observed at 12.5K in the heat
capacity of MgCr2O4 corresponding to a magnetically driven first order
structural transition is suppressed even for small x suggesting glassy
disorder. Uncompensated magnetism - with open magnetization loops - develops
for samples in the x range 0.43 < x < 1. Multiple magnetic ordering
temperatures and large coercive fields emerge in the intermediate composition
range 0.43 < x < 0.47. The Neel temperature increases with increasing x across
the series while the value of the Curie-Weiss Theta decreases. A magnetic
temperature-composition phase diagram of the solid solution series is
presented.
