English

Antiferromagnetic and Orbital Ordering on a Diamond Lattice Near Quantum Criticality

Strongly Correlated Electrons 2016-12-21 v1

Abstract

We present neutron scattering measurements on powder samples of the spinel FeSc2S4 that reveal a previously unobserved magnetic ordering transition occurring at 11.8(2)~K. Magnetic ordering occurs subsequent to a subtle cubic-to-tetragonal structural transition which distorts Fe coordinating sulfur tetrahedra lifting the orbital degeneracy. The application of 1~GPa hydrostatic pressure appears to destabilize this N\'eel state, reducing the transition temperature to 8.6(8)~K and redistributing magnetic spectral weight to higher energies. The relative magnitudes of ordered m2 ⁣= ⁣3.1(2)\langle m \rangle^2\!=\!3.1(2) and fluctuating moments δm2 ⁣= ⁣13(1)\langle \delta m \rangle^2\!=\!13(1) show that the magnetically ordered ground state of FeSc2S4 is drastically renormalized and in proximity to criticality.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1603.08033,
  title  = {Antiferromagnetic and Orbital Ordering on a Diamond Lattice Near Quantum Criticality},
  author = {K. W. Plumb and Jennifer Morey and J. A. Rodriguez-Rivera and Hui Wu and A. A. Podlesnyak and T. M. McQueen and C. L. Broholm},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1603.08033},
  year   = {2016}
}

Comments

16 pages, 12 figures