Crystal-field magnetostriction of the spin ice under ultrahigh magnetic fields

Abstract

We present a comprehensive study of the magnetoelastic properties of the Ising pyrochlore oxide Ho${}_2$Ti${}_2$O${}_7$, known as spin ice, by means of high-field magnetostriction measurements and numerical calculations. When a magnetic field is applied along the crystallographic <111> axis, the longitudinal magnetostriction exhibits a broad maximum in the low-field regime around 30 T, followed by a dramatic lattice contraction due to crystal-field (CF) level crossing at $B_{\mathrm{cf}}\sim 65$ T. The transverse magnetostriction exhibits a contrasting behavior, highlighting the anisotropic nature of the CF striction. We identify distinct timescales of spin dynamics and CF-phonon dynamics by applying a magnetic field with different field-sweep rates. Our mean-field calculations, based on a point-charge model, successfully reproduce the overall magnetostriction behavior, revealing the competition between the exchange striction and CF striction. A signature of the CF level crossing is also observed through adiabatic magnetocaloric-effect measurements, consistent with our magnetostriction data.

10 pages, 8 figures, published in Phys. Rev. B

References in corpus (9)

• Antiferro-quadrupolar correlations in the quantum spin ice candidate Pr2Zr2O7
• Unveiling new quantum phases in the Shastry-Sutherland compound SrCu2(BO3)2up to the saturation magnetic field
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• Magnetovolume Effect on the First-Order Metamagnetic Transition in UTe${}_2$
• Magnetoelastic couplings in the deformed Kagomé quantum spin lattice of volborthite
• Magnetization beyond the Ising limit of Ho${}_2$Ti${}_2$O${}_7$

Cited by in corpus (2)

• Magnetostriction in the $J$-$K$-$\Gamma$ model: Application of the numerical linked cluster expansion
• Magnetocaloric effect measurements in ultrahigh magnetic fields up to 120 T