SciPost Phys. Core 5, 047 (2022) ·
published 30 September 2022
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A complex, seven-parameter ground-state problem for an Ising model on a 3D honeycomb zigzag-ladder lattice, containing two types of magnetic sites, is considered in the presence of an external field using the method of basic rays and basic sets of cluster configurations. It is shown that the geometrical frustration due to the presence of triangle elements leads to the emergence of a large variety of magnetic phases, the majority of which are highly degenerate. The obtained theoretical results are used to elucidate the sequence of phase transitions in the family of rare-earth oxides with a honeycomb zigzag-ladder lattice. New phases predicted by our model and observed experimentally do not appear in previously considered simpler models for noninteracting zigzag-ladders.
N. Qureshi, O. Fabelo, P. Manuel, D. D. Khalyavin, E. Lhotel, S.X.M. Riberolles, G. Balakrishnan, O. A. Petrenko
SciPost Phys. 11, 007 (2021) ·
published 12 July 2021
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We report an unusual in-field behaviour of SrEr2O4 for a magnetic field applied along two high-symmetry directions, the a and c axes. This geometrically frustrated magnet hosts two crystallographically inequivalent Er ions, Er1 and Er2, that are both located on triangular zigzag ladders, but only one site, Er1, forms a long-range magnetic order at low temperatures in a zero field. We follow the sequence of peculiar field induced states in SrEr2O4 with detailed single-crystal magnetisation and neutron diffraction experiments. On appli- cation of an external field along the c axis, the long-range antiferromagnetic order of the Er1 ions is rapidly destroyed and replaced, in fields between 2 and 5 kOe, by a state with shorter-range correlations. The change in correlation length coincides with a fast increase in magnetisation during the metamagnetic transition above which a long-range order is reestablished and maintained into the high fields. The high-field ferromagnet-like order is characterised by sig- nificantly different magnetic moments on the two Er sites, with the Er1 site dominating the magnetisation process. For the field applied parallel to the a axis, in the field range of 4 to 12 kOe, the planes of diffuse magnetic scat- tering observed in zero field due to the one-dimensional correlations between the Er2 moments are replaced by much more localised but still diffuse features corresponding to the establishment of an up-up-down structure associated with a one-third magnetisation plateau. Above 14 kOe, a ferromagnet-like high-field order is induced following another phase transition. For this direction of the field, the Er2 moments dictate the succession of transitions while the Er1 mo- ments remain significantly less polarised. A complete field polarisation of both Er sites is not achieved even at 50 kOe for either field direction, reflecting the strongly anisotropic nature of magnetisation process in SrEr2O4.
