To capture the high-field magnetization process of herbertsmithite (ZnCu3(OH)6Cl2), Faraday rotation (FR) measurements were carried out on a single crystal in magnetic fields of up to 190 T. The magnetization data evaluated from the FR angle exhibite
d a saturation behavior above 150 T at low temperatures, which was attributed to the 1/3 magnetization plateau. The overall behavior of the magnetization process was reproduced by theoretical models based on the nearest-neighbor Heisenberg model. This suggests that herbertsmithite is a proximate kagome antiferromagnet hosting an ideal quantum spin liquid in the ground state. A distinguishing feature is the superlinear magnetization increase, which is in contrast to the Brillouin function-type increase observed by conventional magnetization measurements and indicates a reduced contribution from free spins located at the Zn sites to the FR signal.
Metal-insulator (MI) transitions in correlated electron systems have long been a central and controversial issue in material science. Vanadium dioxide (VO2) exhibits a first-order MI transition at 340 K. For more than half a century, it has been deba
ted whether electronic correlation or the structural instability due to dimerised V ions is the more essential driving force behind this MI transition. Here, we show that an ultrahigh magnetic field of 500 T renders the insulator phase of tungsten (W)-doped VO2 metallic. The spin Zeeman effect on the d electrons of the V ions dissociates the dimers in the insulating phase, resulting in the delocalisation of electrons. Because the Mott-Hubbard gap essentially does not depend on the spin degree of freedom, the structural instability is likely to be the more essential driving force behind the MI transition.
We here report magnetostriction measurements under pulsed megagauss fields using a high-speed 100 MHz strain monitoring system devised using fiber Bragg grating (FBG) technique with optical filter method. The optical filter method is a detection sche
me of the strain of FBG, where the changing Bragg wavelength of the FBG reflection is converted to the intensity of reflected light to enable the 100 MHz measurement. In order to show the usefulness and reliability of the method, we report the measurements for solid oxygen, spin-controlled crystal, and volborthite, a deformed Kagom{e} quantum spin lattice, using static magnetic fields up to 7 T and non-destructive millisecond pulse magnets up to 50 T. Then, we show the application of the method for the magnetostriction measurements of CaV$_{4}$O$_{9}$, a two-dimensional antiferromagnet with spin-halves, and LaCoO$_{3}$, an anomalous spin-crossover oxide, in the megagauss fields.
The magnetic phases of a triangular-lattice antiferromagnet, CuCrO$_2$, were investigated in magnetic fields along to the $c$ axis, $H$ // [001], up to 120 T. Faraday rotation and magneto-absorption spectroscopy were used to unveil the rich physics o
f magnetic phases. An up-up-down (UUD) magnetic structure phase was observed around 90--105 T at temperatures around 10 K. Additional distinct anomalies adjacent to the UUD phase were uncovered and the Y-shaped and the V-shaped phases are proposed to be viable candidates. These ordered phases are emerged as a result of the interplay of geometrical spin frustration, single ion anisotropy and thermal fluctuations in an environment of extremely high magnetic fields.
An ultra-high magnetic field was generated by the electro-magnetic flux compression technique under a reduced seed magnetic field condition and achieved maximum magnetic field intensity was investigated. An ordinal pickup coil measurement fails due t
o the dielectric breakdown at around 500 T. On the other hand, by utilizing the magneto-optical Faraday rotation method with a small probe, the measureable maximum magnetic field increased significantly. It was found that reduced seed field increases the maximum magnetic field, but with a reduced size of the final bore. A highest magnetic field over 763 T and possibly up to 985 T approaching 1000 T was detected.
The magnetization processes of the spin-3/2 antiferromagnet LiInCr4O8 comprising a breathing pyrochlore lattice, which is an alternating array of small and large tetrahedra, are studied under ultrahigh magnetic fields of up to 130 T using state-of-th
e-art pulsed magnets. A half magnetization plateau is observed above 90 T to 130 T, suggesting that LiInCr4O8 has a strong spin-lattice coupling, similar to conventional chromium spinel oxides. The magnetization of LiGa0.125In0.875Cr4O8, in which the structural and magnetic transitions at low temperatures have been completely suppressed, shows a sudden increase above 13 T, indicating that a spin gap of 2.2 meV exists between a tetramer singlet ground state and an excited state with total spin 1, with the latter being stabilized by the application of a magnetic field. The breathing pyrochlore antiferromagnet is found to be a unique frustrated system with strong spin-lattice coupling and bond alternation.
The spatial distribution of magnetic fields that are generated by the electromagnetic flux compression technique is investigated, with emphasis on the dynamical processes of an imploding liner. By comparing with the results of computer simulations, w
e found that the non-uniform implosion of a liner is important in order to explain the magnetic fields distribution during the liners implosion. In addition, our results suggest that the initial inwards compressing spool-like motion of the liner subsequently turns out to be outwards stretching barrel-like motion along the magnetic field axis.
High-field magneto-optical spectroscopy was conducted on highly-selected chiral (6,5) specific single-walled carbon nanotubes. Spectra of phonon sidebands in both 1st and 2nd sub-bands were observed to be unchanged by the application of an external m
agnetic field up to 52 T. Our analyses led to the conclusion that both phonon sidebands in respective sub-band originate from the dark K-momentum singlet (D-K-S) excitons. Moreover, while the relative ordering between the bandedge bright exciton and its zero-momentum anti-bonding counterpart was found to be opposite for the 1st and 2nd sub-bands, the relative ordering between the D-K-S exciton and the band-edge bright exciton was clarified to be the same for both sub-bands. Energy of these D-K-S excitons was estimated to be ~ 21.5 and ~ 37.3 meV above the band-edge bright exciton for the 1st and 2nd sub-bands, respectively.
