Magneto-structural transitions in a frustrated magnet at high fields

Abstract

Ultrasound and magnetization studies of bond-frustrated ZnCr2S4 spinel are performed in static magnetic fields up to 18 T and in pulsed fields up to 62 T. At temperatures below the antiferromagnetic transition at T_N1 14 K the sound velocity as function of magnetic field reveals a sequence of steps followed by plateaus indicating a succession of crystallographic structures with constant stiffness. At the same time, the magnetization evolves continuously with field up to full magnetic polarization without any plateaus in contrast to geometrically frustrated chromium oxide spinels. The observed high-field magneto-structural states are discussed within a H-T phase diagram taking into account the field and temperature evolution of three coexisting spin structures and subsequent lattice transformations induced by magnetic field.

4 pages, 3 figures

References in corpus (4)

• Spin-phonon coupling in antiferromagnetic chromium spinels
• Spin-driven Phonon Splitting in Bond-frustrated ZnCr2S4
• Spin-driven Phase Transitions in ZnCr${}_2$Se${}_4$ and ZnCr${}_2$S${}_4$ Probed by High Resolution Synchrotron X-ray and Neutron Powder Diffraction
• Interplay of Spin and Lattice Degrees of Freedom in the Frustrated Antiferromagnet CdCr_2O_4: High-field and Temperature Induced Anomalies of the Elastic Constants

Cited by in corpus (7)

• Unconventional magnetostructural transition in CoCr2O4 at high magnetic fields
• Magnetic phases of a highly frustrated magnet, ZnCr2O4, up to an ultra-high magnetic field of 600 T
• Universal exchange-driven phonon splitting in antiferromagnets
• Ultrasound measurement technique for the single-turn-coil magnets
• Negative thermal expansion in the plateau state of a magnetically-frustrated spinel
• Complex magnetic phase diagram with a small phase pocket in a three-dimensional frustrated magnet CuInCr${}_4$S${}_8$
• On the complexity of spinels: Magnetic, electronic, and polar ground states