2015/11/30 by V. S. Maryasin, M. E. Zhitomirsky, Roderich Moessner +1
Chemistry · Materials Science · Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Condensed Matter Physics #Anisotropy #Chemistry #Condensed matter physics #Crystallography #Field (mathematics) #Geometry #Magnetic and transport properties of perovskites and related materials #Mathematics #Multiferroics and related materials #Orientation (vector space) #Phase (matter) #Phase transition #Physics #Pyrochlore #Quantum mechanics #cond-mat.mtrl-sci #cond-mat.stat-mech #cond-mat.str-el
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevb.93.100406
published as Phys. Rev. B 93, 100406(R) (2016) · 11 pages, accepted version with supplemental material
arxiv created 2016/03/16 · openalex publication_date 2016/03/24 · arxiv updated 2016/06/20 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Using Er2Ti2O7 as motivation, we investigate finite-field properties of XY pyrochlore antiferromagnets. In addition to a fluctuation-induced six-fold anisotropy present in zero field, an external magnetic field induces a combination of two-, three-, and six-fold clock terms as a function of its orientation, providing for rich and controllable magnetothermodynamics. For Er2Ti2O7, we predict a phase transition in a weak magnetic field H\ensuremath∥[001]. Re-entrant transitions are also found for H\ensuremath∥[111]. We extend these results to the whole family the XY pyrochlore antiferromagnets and show that presence and number of low-field transitions for different orientations can be used for locating a given material in the parameter space of anisotropic pyrochlores. Finite-temperature classical Monte Carlo simulations serve to confirm and illustrate these analytic predictions.