High magnetic field study of RMnO3(R = Er, Yb)
(Phys. Rev. B 97, 214419, 2018)
Background
Hexagonal manganites RMnO3 (R= Ho-Lu, Sc, Y) display various phase transitions and rich phase diagrams, due to strong interactions between Mn and R spins, the Mn-R exchange, the spin-lattice coupling, and the inherent triangular frustration. However, the determination of the magnetic structures of these materials has been difficult because of the large unit cell, and alternative techniques have only partially clarified the symmetry of the magnetic structures.
What we discover?
Here we report high-field magnetization study on the complex spin system h-ErMnO3 and propose an explanation for the c-axis phase transition observed at 0.8, 12 and 28 T based on an analysis of the magnetization jumps, the complete H-T phase diagram and the irreducible representation of Er3+ (2a and 4b).
Why is this important?
For hexagonal manganite RMnO3, rare earth ions have complex spin structure due to two different positions which are unable to be distinguished by conventional measurement technique. The ground-state symmetry we proposed based on the magnetization jumps can explain the magnetization process well and are helpful for understanding of magnetic phase transitions in other analogous manganite compounds.
Why did they need WHMFC?
The magnetic phase transitions of h-ErMnO3 occur in very high magnetic fields. Thus pulsed high field up to 58 T was employed and performed in Wuhan National High Magnetic Field Center.
Who did the research?
Y. J. Liu,1 J. F. Wang,1,* X. F. Sun,2,3,4,* J.-S. Zhou,5 Z. C. Xia,1 Z. W. Ouyang,1 M. Yang,1 C. B. Liu,1 R. Chen,1 J.-G. Cheng,6 Y. Kohama,7 M. Tokunaga,7 and K. Kindo7
1 Wuhan National High Magnetic Field Center and School of Physics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China
2 Department of Physics, Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale, and Key Laboratory of Strongly-Coupled Quantum Matter Physics (CAS), University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China
3 Institute of Physical Science and Information Technology, Anhui University, Hefei, Anhui 230601, China
4 Collaborative innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, Nanjing University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210093, China
5 Materials Science and Engineering Program, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, USA
6 Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics and Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
7 The Institute for Solid State Physics (ISSP), University of Tokyo, Chiba 277-8581, Japan
