2025/11/27 by Owen Benton, Benton, O., Y. Skourski +17
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Condensed Matter Physics #FOS: Physical sciences #Magnetic and transport properties of perovskites and related materials #Nuclear materials and radiation effects #Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2511.22517
openalex publication_date 2025/11/27 · openalex created_date 2025/12/03 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We explore the magnetic properties of Nd2Zr2O7 and Pr2Zr2O7 single crystals subjected to pulsed magnetic fields up to 60 T using magnetization and magnetocaloric-effect (MCE) measurements, with initial temperatures ranging from 2 to 31K. The MCE data exhibit pronounced and unconventional hysteresis loops, in which the sample temperature increases during both the up-sweep and down-sweep of the field. In Nd2Zr2O7, the MCE further displays a striking plateau as a function of time, followed by a rapid temperature rise that begins at the maximum applied field, across pulses with differing peak-field strengths. Our magnetization measurements reveal an inferred temperature of the magnetic subsystem that differs significantly from the directly measured sample temperature and exhibits opposite hysteresis: the temperature is higher on the up-sweep than the down-sweep, unlike the direct measurements. These observations indicate a breakdown of thermal equilibrium between magnetic and lattice degrees of freedom on the timescale of the pulse (∼ 10-1s). We interpret the results using a phenomenological model involving two thermally coupled subsystems - the magnetic ions and phonons, and a thermal reservoir, which accounts well for the behavior of Pr2Zr2O7. However, it fails to reproduce the plateau seen in Nd2Zr2O7. Agreement with Nd2Zr2O7 data is improved substantially if we allow the thermal coupling between the magnetic and the lattice subsystems to depend on the product (HdH)/(dt). Our results reveal anomalously slow heat transfer between magnetic and lattice subsystems and point toward a novel mechanism for dynamically controlling the heat flow in Nd2Zr2O7 via the rate of magnetic field variation.