We report on a heat capacity study of high quality single crystal samples of lcvo -- a frustrated spin $S=1/2$ chain system -- in magnetic field amounting to 3/4 of the saturation field. At low fields up to about 7~T, a linear temperature dependence
of the specific heat, $C_ppropto T$, resulting from 1D magnetic correlations in the spin chains is followed upon cooling by a sharp lambda anomaly of the transition into a 3D helical phase with $C_ppropto T^3$ behavior at low temperature. The transition from a spin liquid into a spin-modulated (SM) phase at higher fields occurs via a hump-like anomaly which, as the temperature decreases further turns into a $C_ppropto T^2$ law distinctive for a quasi-2D system. We suggest an explanation for how nonmagnetic defects in the Cu$^{2+}$ chains can suppress 3D long-range ordering in the SM phase and leave it undisturbed in a helical phase.
The XY-pyrochlore antiferromagnet ETO is studied by heat capacity measurements and electron spin resonance spectroscopy performed on single crystal samples. The magnetic phase diagrams are established for two directions of applied field, $Hparallel [
100]$ and $Hparallel [111]$. In the magnetically ordered phase observed below $T_N=1.2$ K, the magnetic excitation spectrum consists of a Goldstone mode acquiring an isotropic gap in an applied field, and another mode with a gap softening in the vicinity of a field-induced phase transition. This second-order transition takes place at a critical field $H_c$ above which the magnetization process is accompanied by a canting of the magnetic moments off their local easy-planes. The specific heat curves for $Hparallel [100]$ ($Hgg H_c$) are well described by a model presuming a single dispersionless excitation mode with the energy gap obtained from the spectroscopic measurements.
