Magnetostriction and magneto-structural domains in antiferromagnetic YBa$_{2}$Cu$_{3}$O$_{6}$

B. Nafradi; T. Keller; F. Hardy; C. Meingast; A. Erb; B. Keimer

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.047001

paper

Magnetostriction and magneto-structural domains in antiferromagnetic YBa $_{2}$ Cu $_{3}$ O $_{6}$

arXiv:1601.01076 · doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.047001

Abstract

We have used high-resolution neutron Larmor diffraction and capacitative dilatometry to investigate spontaneous and forced magnetostriction in undoped, antiferromagnetic YBa $_{2}$ Cu $_{3}$ O $_{6.0}$ , the parent compound of a prominent family of high-temperature superconductors. Upon cooling below the Néel temperature, $T_{N} = 420$ ~K, Larmor diffraction reveals the formation of magneto-structural domains of characteristic size $\sim 240$ ~nm. In the antiferromagnetic state, dilatometry reveals a minute ( $4 \times 1 0^{- 6}$ ) orthorhombic distortion of the crystal lattice in external magnetic fields. We attribute these observations to exchange striction and spin-orbit coupling induced magnetostriction, respectively, and show that they have an important influence on the thermal and charge transport properties of undoped and lightly doped cuprates.

to appear in PRL

Magnetostriction and magneto-structural domains in antiferromagnetic YBa $_{2}$ Cu $_{3}$ O $_{6}$

Abstract

References in corpus (7)

Cited by in corpus (8)

Magnetostriction and magneto-structural domains in antiferromagnetic YBa2​Cu3​O6​

Abstract

References in corpus (7)

Cited by in corpus (8)

Magnetostriction and magneto-structural domains in antiferromagnetic YBa $_{2}$ Cu $_{3}$ O $_{6}$