paper

Magnetic Field Induced Transition in Vanadium Spinels

arXiv:1307.4775 · doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.112.017207

Abstract

We study vanadium spinels $A$ V $_{2}$ O $_{4}$ ( $A$ = Cd, Mg) in pulsed magnetic fields up to 65 T. A jump in magnetization at $I^¼_{0} H \approx$ 40 T is observed in the single-crystal MgV $_{2}$ O $_{4}$ , indicating a field induced quantum phase transition between two distinct magnetic orders. In the multiferroic CdV $_{2}$ O $_{4}$ , the field-induced transition is accompanied by a suppression of the electric polarization. By modeling the magnetic properties in the presence of strong spin-orbit coupling characteristic of vanadium spinels, we show that both features of the field-induced transition can be successfully explained by including the effects of the local trigonal crystal field.

5 pages, 5 figures