Abstract
We studied the field-induced magnetic structures of the pyrochlore by single-crystal neutron diffraction with a magnetic field applied along a [110] axis, focusing on the influence of a small misalignment. Both induced magnetic structures with and propagation vectors are found to be sensitive to the misalignment, which controls the magnitude and orientation of the Tb moments involved in the chains, with local [111] anisotropy axis perpendicular to the field. For , spin-icelike structures are observed for a misalignment of a few degrees whereas other structures, where the moments flip by “melting” on the field axis, occur when the field is perfectly aligned. The field evolution of the structure is well reproduced by a molecular field model with anisotropic exchange. We give a complete symmetry analysis of the and magnetic structures, both being described by the basis functions of single irreducible representations.
4 More- Received 6 August 2010
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.82.174406
©2010 American Physical Society