Magnetoelastic standing waves induced in UO2 by microsecond magnetic field pulses.

Magnetoelastic dilatometry of the piezomagnetic antiferromagnet UO2 was performed via the fiber Bragg grating method in magnetic fields up to 150 T generated by a single-turn coil setup. We show that in microsecond timescales, pulsed-magnetic fields excite mechanical resonances at temperatures ranging from 10 to 300 K, in the paramagnetic as well as within the robust antiferromagnetic state of the material. These resonances, which are barely attenuated within the 100-µs observation window, are attributed to the strong magnetoelastic coupling in UO2 combined with the high crystalline quality of the single crystal samples. They compare well with mechanical resonances obtained by a resonant ultrasound technique and superimpose on the known nonmonotonic magnetostriction background. A clear phase shift of π in the lattice oscillations is observed in the antiferromagnetic state when the magnetic field overcomes the piezomagnetic switch field H[Formula: see text] T. We present a theoretical argument that explains this unexpected behavior as a result of the reversal of the antiferromagnetic order parameter at Hc.

Magnetic nanopantograph in the SrCu2(BO3)2 Shastry-Sutherland lattice.

Magnetic materials having competing, i.e., frustrated, interactions can display magnetism prolific in intricate structures, discrete jumps, plateaus, and exotic spin states with increasing applied magnetic fields. When the associated elastic energy cost is not too expensive, this high potential can be enhanced by the existence of an omnipresent magnetoelastic coupling. Here we report experimental and theoretical evidence of a nonnegligible magnetoelastic coupling in one of these fascinating materials, SrCu2(BO3)2 (SCBO). First, using pulsed-field transversal and longitudinal magnetostriction measurements we show that its physical dimensions, indeed, mimic closely its unusually rich field-induced magnetism. Second, using density functional-based calculations we find that the driving force behind the magnetoelastic coupling is the CuOCu superexchange angle that, due to the orthogonal Cu(2+) dimers acting as pantographs, can shrink significantly (0.44%) with minute (0.01%) variations in the lattice parameters. With this original approach we also find a reduction of ∼ 10% in the intradimer exchange integral J, enough to make predictions for the highly magnetized states and the effects of applied pressure on SCBO.

Missing magnetism in Sr4Ru3O10: Indication for Antisymmetric Exchange Interaction.

Metamagnetism occuring inside a ferromagnetic phase is peculiar. Therefore, Sr4Ru3O10, a T C = 105 K ferromagnet, has attracted much attention in recent years, because it develops a pronounced metamagnetic anomaly below T C for magnetic fields applied in the crystallographic ab-plane. The metamagnetic transition moves to higher fields for lower temperatures and splits into a double anomaly at critical fields H c1 = 2.3 T and H c2 = 2.8 T, respectively. Here, we report a detailed study of the different components of the magnetization vector as a function of temperature, applied magnetic field, and varying angle in Sr4Ru3O10. We discover for the first time a reduction of the magnetic moment in the plane of rotation at the metamagnetic transition. The anomaly shifts to higher fields by rotating the field from H ⊥ c to H || c. We compare our experimental findings with numerical simulations based on spin reorientation models taking into account magnetocrystalline anisotropy, Zeeman effect and antisymmetric exchange interactions. While Magnetocrystalline anisotropy combined with a Zeeman term are sufficient to explain a metamagnetic transition in Sr4Ru3O10, a Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya term is crucial to account for the reduction of the magnetic moment as observed in the experiments.

Upper Critical Field and Kondo Effects in Fe(Te0.9Se0.1) Thin Films by Pulsed Field Measurements.

The transition temperatures of epitaxial films of Fe(Te0:9Se0:1) are remarkably insensitive to applied magnetic field, leading to predictions of upper critical fields Bc2(T = 0) in excess of 100 T. Using pulsed magnetic fields, we find Bc2(0) to be on the order of 45 T, similar to values in bulk material and still in excess of the paramagnetic limit. The same films show strong magnetoresistance in fields above Bc2(T), consistent with the observed Kondo minimum seen above Tc. Fits to the temperature dependence in the context of the WHH model, using the experimental value of the Maki parameter, require an effective spin-orbit relaxation parameter of order unity. We suggest that Kondo localization plays a similar role to spin-orbit pair breaking in making WHH fits to the data.