We have determined the full magnetic dispersion relations of multiferroic BiFeO3. In particular, two excitation gaps originating from magnetic anisotropies have been clearly observed. The direct observation of the gaps enables us to accurately determ
ine the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya (DM) interaction and the single ion anisotropy. The DM interaction supports a strong magneto-electric coupling in this compound.
Shubnikov-de Haas measurements of high quality URu2Si2 single crystals reveal two previously unobserved Fermi surface branches in the so-called hidden order phase. Therefore about 55% of the enhanced mass is now detected. Under pressure in the antife
rromagnetic state, the Shubnikov-de Haas frequencies for magnetic fields applied along the crystalline c axis show little change compared with the zero pressure data. This implies a similar Fermi surface in both the hidden order and antiferromagnetic states, which strongly suggests that the lattice doubling in the antiferromagnetic phase due to the ordering vector QAF = (0 0 1) already occurs in the hidden order. These measurements provide a good test for existing or future theories of the hidden order parameter.
Using an elastic neutron scattering technique under a pulsed magnetic field up to 30 T, we determined the magnetic structure in the half-magnetization plateau phase in the spinel CdCr$_2$O$_4$. The magnetic structure has a cubic $P4_3$32 symmetry, wh
ich is the same as that observed in HgCr$_2$O$_4$. This suggests that there is a universal field induced spin-lattice coupling mechanism at work in the Cr-based spinels.
From neutron diffraction measurements on a quasi-1D Ising-like Co$^{rm 2+}$ spin compound BaCo$_{rm 2}$V$_{rm 2}$O$_{rm 8}$, we observed an appearance of a novel type of incommensurate ordering in magnetic fields. This ordering is essentially differe
nt from the N{ e}el-type ordering, which is expected for the classical system, and is caused by quantum fluctuation inherent in the quantum spin chain. A Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid (TLL) nature characteristic of the gapless quantum 1D system is responsible for the realization of the incommensurate ordering.
Recently, two consecutive phase transitions were observed, upon cooling, in an antiferromagnetic spinel GeNi$_2$O$_4$ at $T_{N1}=12.1$ K and $T_{N2}=11.4$ K, respectively cite{matsuno, crawford}. Using unpolarized and polarized elastic neutron scatte
ring we show that the two transitions are due to the existence of frustrated minority spins in this compound. Upon cooling, at $T_{N1}$ the spins on the $<111>$ kagome planes order ferromagnetically in the plane and antiferromagnetically between the planes (phase I), leaving the spins on the $<111>$ triangular planes that separate the kagome planes frustrated and disordered. At the lower $T_{N2}$, the triangular spins also order in the $<111>$ plane (phase II). We also present a scenario involving exchange interactions that qualitatively explains the origin of the two purely magnetic phase transitions.
Magnetic systems are fertile ground for the emergence of exotic states when the magnetic interactions cannot be satisfied simultaneously due to the topology of the lattice - a situation known as geometrical frustration. Spinels, AB2O4, can realize th
e most highly frustrated network of corner-sharing tetrahedra. Several novel states have been discovered in spinels, such as composite spin clusters and novel charge-ordered states. Here we use neutron and synchrotron X-ray scattering to characterize the fractional magnetization state of HgCr2O4 under an external magnetic field, H. When the field is applied in its Neel ground state, a phase transition occurs at H ~ 10 Tesla at which each tetrahedron changes from a canted Neel state to a fractional spin state with the total spin, Stet, of S/2 and the lattice undergoes orthorhombic to cubic symmetry change. Our results provide the microscopic one-to-one correspondence between the spin state and the lattice distortion.
Cu$_2$Fe$_2$Ge$_4$O$_{13}$ is a bicomponent compound that consists of Cu dimers and Fe chains with separate energy scale. By inelastic neutron scattering technique with high-energy resolution we observed the indirect Fe - Fe exchange coupling by way
of the Cu dimers. The obtained parameters of the effective indirect interaction and related superexchange interactions are consistent with those estimated semi-statically. The consistency reveals that the Cu dimers play the role of nonmagnetic media in the indirect magnetic interaction.
