BaCo2V2O8 is a nice example of a quasi-one-dimensional quantum spin system that can be described in terms of Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid physics. This is explored in the present study where the magnetic field-temperature phase diagram is thoroughly established up to 12 T using single-crystal neutron diffraction. The transition from the Neel phase to the incommensurate longitudinal spin density wave (LSDW) phase through a first-order transition, as well as the critical exponents associated with the paramagnetic to ordered phase transitions, and the magnetic order both in the Neel and in the LSDW phase are determined, thus providing a stringent test for the theory.
The magnetic structure of the spin-chain antiferromagnet SrCo2V2O8 is determined by single-crystal neutron diffraction experiment. The system undergoes magnetic long range order below T_N = 4.96 K. The moment of 2.16{mu}_B per Co at 1.6 K in the screw chain running along the c axis alternates in the c-axis. The moments of neighboring screw chains are arranged antiferromagnetically along one in-plane axis and ferromagnetically along the other in-plane axis. This magnetic configuration breaks the 4-fold symmetry of the tetragonal crystal structure and leads to two equally populated magnetic twins with antiferromagnetic vector in the a or b axis. The very similar magnetic state to the isostructural BaCo2V2O8 warrants SrCo2V2O8 another interesting half-integer spin-chain antiferromagnet for investigation on quantum antiferromagnetism.
In the effective Ising spin-1/2 antiferromagnetic chain system BaCo$_2$V$_2$O$_8, the magnetic-field influence is highly anisotropic. For magnetic fields along the easy axis $c$, the N{e}el order is strongly suppressed already for low fields and an incommensurate order is entered above 4 T. We present a detailed study of the magnetic phase diagrams for different magnetic field directions, which are derived from magnetization data, high-resolution thermal expansion and magnetostriction measurements as well as from the thermal conductivity. Zero-field thermal expansion data reveal that the magnetic transition is accompanied by an orthorhombic distortion within the $ab$ plane. Under ambient conditions the crystals are heavily twinned, but the domain orientation can be influenced either by applying uniaxial pressure or a magnetic field along the [100] direction. In addition, our data reveal a pronounced in-plane magnetic anisotropy for fields applied within the $ab$ plane. For $H || [110]$, the magnetic field influence on T$_N$ is weak, whereas for magnetic fields applied along [100], T$_N$ vanishes at about 10 T and the zero-field N{e}el order is completely suppressed as is confirmed by neutron diffraction data. The second-order phase transition strongly suggests a quantum critical point being present at $Hsimeq 10$ T parallel [100], where the N{e}el order probably changes to a spin-liquid state.
We present single-crystal neutron-diffraction data for the spin-chain compound Ca3Co2O6. The intensity and line shapes of the two families of Bragg peaks characterising both the antiferromagnetic and the ferromagnetic components of the magnetic order present in this material have been measured as a function of temperature and applied magnetic fields of up to 5 T. We have studied the microscopic nature of the magnetic order at each step seen in the bulk magnetisation and investigated the evolution of the long and short-range components of the magnetic order in Ca3Co2O6.
The magnetic structure of CsCo2Se2 was investigated using single-crystal neutron diffraction technique. An antiferromagnetic transition with the propagation vector (0,0,1) was observed at T_N = 78 K. The Co magnetic moment 0.772(6) {mu}_B at 10 K pointing in the basal plane couples ferromagnetically in the plane which stacks antiferromagnetically along the c direction. Tuning and suppressing the interplane antiferromagnetic interaction may be crucial to induce the material to a superconducting state.
The magnetic properties of Co3V2O8 have been studied by single-crystal neutron-diffraction. In zero magnetic field, the observed broadening of the magnetic Bragg peaks suggests the presence of disorder both in the low-temperature ferromagnetic and in the higher-temperature antiferromagnetic state. The field dependence of the intensity and position of the magnetic reflections in Co3V2O8 reveals a complex sequence of phase transitions in this Kagome staircase compound. For H//a, a commensurate-incommensurate-commensurate transition is found in a field of 0.072 T in the antiferromagnetic phase at 7.5 K. For H//c at low-temperature, an applied field induces an unusual transformation from a ferromagnetic to an antiferromagnetic state at about 1 T accompanied by a sharp increase in magnetisation.