No Arabic abstract
Exotic spin-multipolar ordering in spin transition metal insulators has so far eluded unambiguous experimental observation. A less studied, but perhaps more feasible fingerprint of multipole character emerges in the excitation spectrum in the form of quadrupolar transitions. Such multipolar excitations are desirable as they can be manipulated with the use of light or electric field and can be captured by means of conventional experimental techniques. Here we study single crystals of multiferroic Sr$_2$CoGe$_2$O$_7$, and show that due to its nearly isotropic nature a purely quadrupolar bimagnon mode appears in the electron spin resonance (ESR) spectra. This non-magnetic spin-excitation couples to the electric field of the light and becomes observable for a specific experimental configuration, in full agreement with a theoretical analysis of the selection rules.
The dynamical magnetic correlations in tbti, have been investigated using polarized inelastic neutron scattering. Dispersive excitations are observed, emerging from pinch points in reciprocal space and characterized by an anisotropic spectral weight. Anomalies in the crystal field and phonon excitation spectrum at Brillouin zone centers are also reported. These findings suggest that Coulomb phases, although they present a disordered ground state with dipolar correlations, allow the propagation of collective excitations. They also point out a strong spin-lattice coupling, which likely drives effective interactions between the $4f$ quadrupolar moments.
We studied the novel multiferroic material Sr$_2$FeSi$_2$O$_7$, and found 3 absorption modes above the magnetic ordering transition temperature using time-domain terahertz spectroscopy. These absorption modes can be explained as the optical transitions between the spin-orbit coupling and crystal field split 3d$^6$ Fe$^{2+}$ ground state term in this material. Consideration of the compressed tetrahedral environment of the Fe$^{2+}$ site is crucial to understand the excitations. We point out, however, discrepancies between the single-site atomic picture and the experimental results.
We report on spherical neutron polarimetry and unpolarized neutron diffraction in zero magnetic field as well as flipping ratio and static magnetization measurements in high magnetic fields on the multiferroic square lattice antiferromagnet Ba$_2$CoGe$_2$O$_7$. We found that in zero magnetic field the magnetic space group is $Cmm2$ with sublattice magnetization parallel to the [100] axis of this orthorhombic setting. The spin canting has been found to be smaller than $0.2^circ$ in the ground state. This assignment is in agreement with the field-induced changes of the magnetic domain structure below 40 mT as resolved by spherical neutron polarimetry. The magnitude of the ordered moment has been precisely determined. Above the magnetic ordering temperature short-range magnetic fluctuations are observed. Based on the high-field magnetization data, we refined the parameters of the recently proposed microscopic spin model describing the multiferroic phase of Ba$_2$CoGe$_2$O$_7$.
For a symmetry consistent theoretical description of the multiferroic phase of Ba$_2$CoGe$_2$O$_7$ a precise knowledge of its crystal structure is a prerequisite. In our previous synchrotron X-ray diffraction experiment on multiferroic Ba$_2$CoGe$_2$O$_7$ at room temperature we found forbidden reflections that favour the tetragonal-to-orthorhombic symmetry lowering of the titled compound. Here, we report the results of room-temperature single-crystal diffraction studies with both hot and cold neutrons to differentiate between the real symmetry lowering and multiple diffraction (the Renninger effect). A comparison of the experimental multiple diffraction patterns with simulated ones rules out the symmetry lowering. Thus, the structural model based on the tetragonal space group $Pbar{4}2_1m$ was selected to describe the Ba$_2$CoGe$_2$O$_7$ symmetry at room temperature. The precise structural parameters from neutron diffraction at 300K are presented and compared with the previous X-ray diffraction results.
We investigate the evolution of magnetic excitations in Sr$_3$Ru$_2$O$_7$ using a three band tight binding model that takes into account the influence of Mn and Ti dopant ions. The effect of dopant ions on the Sr$_3$Ru$_2$O$_7$ band structure has been included by taking into account the dopant induced suppression of the oxygen octahedral rotation in the tight binding band structure and changes in electron occupation. We find that the low energy spin fluctuations are dominated by three wave vectors around Q=$((0,0),(pi/2,pi/2))$, and $(pi,0)$ which compete with each other. As the octahedral rotation is suppressed with increasing doping, the three wave vectors evolve differently. In particular, the undoped compound has dominant wavevectors at Q=$((0,0),(pi/2,pi/2))$, but doping Sr$_3$Ru$_2$O$_7$ leads to a significant enhancement in the spin susceptibility at the Q=$(pi,0)$ wavevector bringing the system closer to a magnetic instability. All the features calculated from our model are in agreement with neutron scattering experiments. We have also studied the effect of a c-axis Zeeman field on the low energy spin fluctuations. We find that an increasing magnetic field suppresses the AFM fluctuations and leads to stronger competition between the AFM and FM spin fluctuations. The magnetic field dependence observed in our calculations therefore supports the scenario that the observed nematic phase in the metamagnetic region in Sr$_3$Ru$_2$O$_7$ is intimately related to the presence of a competing ferromagnetic instability.