Intermolecular hydrogen bonds impede long-range (anti-)ferroelectric order of water. We confine H 2 O molecules in nanosized cages formed by ions of a dielectric crystal. Arranging them in channels at a distance of~5 Å with an interchannel separation of~10 Å prevents the formation of hydrogen networks while electric dipole-dipole interactions remain effective. Here, we present measurements of the temperature-dependent dielectric permittivity, pyrocurrent, electric polarization and specific heat that indicate an order-disorder ferroelectric phase transition at T 0 ≈ 3 K in the water dipolar lattice. Ab initio molecular dynamics and classical Monte Carlo simulations reveal that at low temperatures the water molecules form ferroelectric domains in the ab-plane that order antiferroelectrically along the channel direction. This way we achieve the long-standing goal of arranging water molecules in polar order. This is not only of high relevance in various natural systems but might open an avenue towards future applications in biocompatible nanoelectronics.

Evolution of magnetism in single crystals of the van der Waals compound VI3 in external pressure up to 7.3 GPa studied by measuring magnetization and ac magnetic susceptibility is reported. Four magnetic phase transitions, at T1 = 54.5 K, T2 = 53 K, TC = 49.5 K, and TFM = 26 K, respectively have been observed at ambient pressure. The first two have been attributed to the onset of ferromagnetism in specific crystal-surface layers. The bulk ferromagnetism is characterized by the magnetic ordering transition at Curie temperature TC and the transition between two different ferromagnetic phases TFM, accompanied by a structure transition from monoclinic to triclinic symmetry upon cooling. The pressure effects on magnetic parameters were studied with three independent techniques. TC was found to be almost unaffected by pressures up to 0.6 GPa whereas TFM increases rapidly with increasing pressure and reaches TC at a triple point at  0.85 GPa. At higher pressures, only one magnetic phase transition is observed moving to higher temperatures with increasing pressure to reach 99 K at 7.3 GPa. In contrast, the low-temperature bulk magnetization is dramatically reduced by applying pressure (by more than 50% at 2.5 GPa) suggesting a possible pressure-induced reduction of vanadium magnetic moment. We discussed these results in light of recent theoretical studies to analyze exchange interactions and provide how to increase the Curie temperature of VI3.

Echoes of quantum phase transitions at finite temperatures are theoretically and experimentally challenging and unexplored topics. Particularly in metallic quantum ferromagnets the experimental investigations are hampered by an intricate preparation of sufficiently pure samples and the access to the proper coordinates in parameter space. The present study shows that it is possible to tune a specific system at easily accessible conditions to the vicinity of its quantum phase transition. The physics is demonstrated on Ru-doped UCoAl, driven by pressure or substitution to and across the tricritical point and follows the first-order transition line to the theoretically presumed quantum phase transition. These findings open the possibilities for further in-depth studies of classical and quantum critical phenomena at easily reachable conditions.

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The electrical resistance, Hall resistance and thermoelectric power of the Ising-like antiferromagnet UIrSi3 were measured as functions of temperature and magnetic field. We have observed that the unequivocally different characters of first-order and second-order magnetic phase transitions lead to distinctly different magnetotransport properties in the neighborhood of corresponding critical temperatures and magnetic fields, respectively. The magnetic contributions to the electrical and Hall resistivity in the antiferromagnetic state, and the polarized and normal regimes of paramagnetic state are driven by different underlying mechanisms. Results of detailed measurements of magnetotransport in the vicinity of the tricritical point reveal that the Hall-resistivity steps at phase transitions change polarity just at this point. The jumps in field dependences of specific heat, electrical resistivity, Hall resistivity and Seebeck coefficient at the first-order metamagnetic transitions indicate a Fermi surface reconstruction, which is characteristic of a magnetic-field induced Lifshitz transition. The presented results emphasize the usefulness of measurements of electrical-and thermaltransport properties as sensitive probes of magnetic phase transformations in antiferromagnets sometimes hardly detectable by other methods.