We have used high-resolution neutron Larmor diffraction and capacitative dilatometry to investigate spontaneous and forced magnetostriction in undoped, antiferromagnetic YBa2Cu3O6.0, the parent compound of a prominent family of high-temperature superconductors. Upon cooling below the N\'eel temperature, TN=420~K, Larmor diffraction reveals the formation of magneto-structural domains of characteristic size ∼240~nm. In the antiferromagnetic state, dilatometry reveals a minute (4×10−6) orthorhombic distortion of the crystal lattice in external magnetic fields. We attribute these observations to exchange striction and spin-orbit coupling induced magnetostriction, respectively, and show that they have an important influence on the thermal and charge transport properties of undoped and lightly doped cuprates.
@article{arxiv.1601.01076,
title = {Magnetostriction and magneto-structural domains in antiferromagnetic YBa$_{2}$Cu$_{3}$O$_{6}$},
author = {B. Nafradi and T. Keller and F. Hardy and C. Meingast and A. Erb and B. Keimer},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1601.01076},
year = {2016}
}