We have performed high-resolution neutron diffraction and inelastic neutron scattering experiments in the frustrated multiferroic hexagonal compounds RMnO_{3} (R = Ho,Yb,Sc,Y), which provide evidence of a strong magnetoelastic coupling in the whole family. We can correlate the atomic positions, the type of magnetic structure, and the nature of the spin waves whatever the R ion and temperature. The key parameter is the position of the Mn ions in the unit cell with respect to a critical threshold of 1/3, which determines the sign of the coupling between Mn triangular planes.

The magnetic ordering of the hexagonal multiferroic compound YbMnO3 has been studied between 100 K and 1.5 K by combining neutron powder diffraction, 170 Yb Mössbauer spectroscopy and magnetization measurements. The Yb moments of the two crystallographic sites order at two different temperatures, the 4b site together with the Mn moments (at TN ≃85 K) and the 2a site well below (at 3.5 K). The temperature dependences of the Mn and Yb moments are explained within a molecular field model, showing that the 4b and 2a sites order via Yb-Mn and Yb-Yb interactions respectively. A simple picture taking into account the local Mn environment of the Rare earth R (4b) ion is proposed to couple R and Mn orders in hexagonal RMnO3 manganites. The nature and symmetry of the R-Mn interactions yielding the R order are discussed.

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We observed the coexistence of superconductivity and antiferromagnetic order in the single-crystalline ternary pnictide HoPdBi, a plausible topological semimetal. The compound orders antiferromagnetically at TN = 1.9 K and exhibits superconductivity below Tc = 0.7 K, which was confirmed by magnetic, electrical transport and specific heat measurements. The specific heat shows anomalies corresponding to antiferromagnetic ordering transition and crystalline field effect, but not to superconducting transition. Single-crystal neutron diffraction indicates that the antiferromagnetic structure is characterized by the propagation vector. Temperature variation of the electrical resistivity reveals two parallel conducting channels of semiconducting and metallic character. In weak magnetic fields, the magnetoresistance exhibits weak antilocalization effect, while in strong fields and temperatures below 50 K it is large and negative. At temperatures below 7 K Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations with two frequencies appear in the resistivity. These oscillations have non-trivial Berry phase, which is a distinguished feature of Dirac fermions.

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We report neutron diffraction measurements on U(Ru(0.96)Rh(0.04))(2)Si(2) single crystal under pulsed high magnetic fields up to 30 T applied along the tetragonal c axis. The high-field experiments revealed that the field-induced phase II above 26 T corresponds to a commensurate up-up-down ferrimagnetic structure characterized by the wave vector q=(2/3,0,0) with the magnetic moments parallel to the c axis, which naturally explains the one-third magnetization plateau and the substantially changed Fermi surface in phase II. This a-axis modulated magnetic structure indicates that the phase II near the hidden order phase is closely related to the characteristic incommensurate magnetic fluctuations at Q(1)=(0.6,0,0) in the pure system URu(2)Si(2), in contrast to the pressure-induced antiferromagnetic order at Q(0)=(1,0,0).

The anisotropy of the magnetic properties of molecular magnets is a key descriptor in the search for improved magnets. Herein, it is shown how an analytical approach using single-crystal polarized neutron diffraction (PND) provides direct access to atomic magnetic susceptibility tensors. The technique was applied for the first time to two Dy-based single-molecule magnets and showed clear axial atomic susceptibility for both Dy ions. For the triclinic system, bulk magnetization methods are not symmetry-restricted, and the experimental magnetic easy axes from both PND, angular-resolved magnetometry (ARM), and theoretical approaches all match reasonably well. ARM curves simulated from the molecular susceptibility tensor determined with PND show strong resemblance with the experimental ones. For the monoclinic compound, comparison can only be made with the theoretically calculated magnetic anisotropy, and in this case PND yields an easy-axis direction that matches that predicted by electrostatic methods. Importantly, this technique allows the determination of all elements of the magnetic susceptibility tensor and not just the easy-axis direction, as is available from electrostatic predictions. Furthermore, it has the capacity to provide each of the anisotropic magnetic susceptibility tensors for all independent magnetic ions in a molecule and thus allows studies on polynuclear complexes and compounds of higher crystalline symmetry than triclinic.

We present here a neutron diffraction study, both in zero field and as a function of magnetic field, of the magnetic structure of the tetragonal intermetallic EuNiGe 3 on a single crystalline sample. This material is known to undergo a cascade of transitions, first at 13.2 K towards an incommensurate modulated magnetic structure, then at 10.5 K to an equal moment, yet undetermined, antiferromagnetic structure. We show here that the low temperature phase presents a spiral moment arrangement with wave-vector k = ( 1 4 , δ, 0). For a magnetic field applied along the tetragonal c-axis, the square root of the scattering intensity of a chosen reflection matches very well the complex metamagnetic behavior of the magnetization along c measured previously. For the magnetic field applied along the b-axis, two magnetic transitions are observed below the transition to a fully polarized state.