No Arabic abstract
Analysis of neutron diffraction, dc magnetization, ac magnetic susceptibility, heat capacity, and electrical resistivity for DyRuAsO in an applied magnetic field are presented at temperatures near and below those at which the structural distortion (T_S = 25 K) and subsequent magnetic ordering (T_N = 10.5 K) take place. Powder neutron diffraction is used to determine the antiferromagnetic order of Dy moments of magnitude 7.6(1) mu_B in the absence of a magnetic field, and demonstrate the reorientation of the moments into a ferromagnetic configuration upon application of a magnetic field. Dy magnetism is identified as the driving force for the structural distortion. The magnetic structure of analogous TbRuAsO is also reported. Competition between the two magnetically ordered states in DyRuAsO is found to produce unusual physical properties in applied magnetic fields at low temperature. An additional phase transition near T* = 3 K is observed in heat capacity and other properties in fields greater than about 3 T. Magnetic fields of this magnitude also induce spin-glass-like behavior including thermal and magnetic hysteresis, divergence of zero-field-cooled and field-cooled magnetization, frequency dependent anomalies in ac magnetic susceptibility, and slow relaxation of the magnetization. This is remarkable since DyRuAsO is a stoichiometric material with no disorder detected by neutron diffraction, and suggests analogies with spin-ice compounds and related materials with strong geometric frustration.
There has been a great interest in magnetic field induced quantum spin liquids in Kitaev magnets after the discovery of neutron scattering continuum and half quantized thermal Hall conductivity in the material $alpha$-RuCl$_3$. In this work, we provide a semiclassical analysis of the relevant theoretical models on large system sizes, and compare the results to previous studies on quantum models with small system sizes. We find a series of competing magnetic orders with fairly large unit cells at intermediate magnetic fields, which are most likely missed by previous approaches. We show that quantum fluctuations are typically strong in these large unit cell orders, while their magnetic excitations may resemble a scattering continuum and give rise to a large thermal Hall conductivity. Our work provides an important basis for a thorough investigation of emergent spin liquids and competing phases in Kitaev magnets.
The novel field-induced re-entrant phase in multiferroic hexagonal HoMnO3 is investigated to lower temperatures by dc magnetization, ac susceptibility, and specific heat measurements at various magnetic fields. Two new phases have been unambiguously identified below the Neel transition temperature, TN=76 K, for magnetic fields up to 50 kOe. The existence of an intermediate phase between the P[6]_3[c]m and P[6]_3c[m] magnetic structures (previously predicted from dielectric measurements) was confirmed and the magnetic properties of this phase have been investigated. At low temperatures (T<5 K) a dome shaped phase boundary characterized by a magnetization jump and a narrow heat capacity peak was detected between the magnetic fields of 5 kOe and 18 kOe. The transition across this phase boundary is of first order and the magnetization and entropy jumps obey the magnetic analogue of the Clausius-Clapeyron relation. Four of the five low-temperature phases coexist at a tetracritical point at 2 K and 18 kOe. The complex magnetic phase diagram so derived provides an informative basis for unraveling the underlying driving forces for the occurrence of the various phases and the coupling between the different orders.
Applying a magnetic field in the hexagonal plane of YMn$_6$Sn$_6$ leads to a complex magnetic phase diagram of commensurate and incommensurate phases, one of which coexists with the topological Hall effect (THE) generated by a unique fluctuation-driven mechanism. Using unpolarized neutron diffraction, we report on the solved magnetic structure for two previously identified, but unknown, commensurate phases. These include a low-temperature, high-field fan-like phase and a room-temperature, low-field canted antiferromagnetic phase. An intermediate incommensurate phase between the fan-like and forced ferromagnetic phases is also identified as the last known phase of the in-plane field-temperature diagram. Additional characterization using synchrotron powder diffraction reveals extremely high-quality, single-phase crystals, which suggests that the presence of two incommensurate magnetic structures throughout much of the phase diagram is an intrinsic property of the system. Interestingly, polarized neutron diffraction shows that the centrosymmetric system hosts preferential chirality in the zero-field double-flat-spiral phase, which, along with the THE, is a topologically non-trivial characteristic.
We present thermodynamic and neutron data on Ni_3V_2O_8, a spin-1 system on a kagome staircase. The extreme degeneracy of the kagome antiferromagnet is lifted to produce two incommensurate phases at finite T - one amplitude modulated, the other helical - plus a commensurate canted antiferromagnet for T ->0. The H-T phase diagram is described by a model of competing first and second neighbor interactions with smaller anisotropic terms. Ni_3V_2O_8 thus provides an elegant example of order from sub leading interactions in a highly frustrated system
Cubic spinel GeNi2O4 exhibits intriguing magnetic properties with two successive antiferromagnetic phase transitions (TN1 12.1 and TN2 11.4 K) with the absence of any structural transition. We have performed detailed heat capacity and magnetic measurements in different crystallographic orientations. A new magnetic phase in presence of magnetic field (H > 4 T) along the [111] direction is revealed, which is not observed when the magnetic field is applied along the [100] and [110] directions. High field neutron powder diffraction measurements confirm such a change in magnetic phase, which could be ascribed to a spin reorientation in the presence of magnetic field. A strong magnetic anisotropy and competing magnetic interactions play a crucial role on the complex magnetic behavior in this cubic system.