Structural Domain Switching by Magnetic Fields in RAl₃C₃ (R = Rare Earth)

Abstract

Hexagonal-to-orthorhombic structural transitions in RAl3C3 have been studied by X-ray diffraction for R=Yb, Tm, Er, Dy, and Lu. We report how orthorhombic domains are controlled by adjusting external magnetic fields. It is shown that orthorhombic domains in RAl3C3 can be aligned by the field when the R ion is magnetic. It is also shown that a single-domain state can be switched to another single-domain state by the field even in paramagnetic states with small induced moments. For R=Lu, however, it was not possible to change the multidomain state by a field of up to 70 kOe. We discuss that domain selection and switching are caused by magnetic anisotropies in the orthorhombic phase of RAl3C3. We also propose an idea to explain the field-induced antiferromagnetism revealed by Khalyavin et al. [Phys. Rev. B 87, 220406 (2013)].

Phase diagram of the Kondo-Heisenberg model on honeycomb lattice with geometrical frustration

“…While most of previous studies of KHLM focused on the square lattice, the two-dimensional lattice with geometrical frustration provides additional tuning factor into the phase transitions in HF systems, such as CePd 1−x Ni x Al [16] on Kagome lattice, and YbAgGe [17,18], YbAl 3 C 3 [19,20] on triangular lattices. For Yb 2 Pt 2 Pb [21,22], a KHLM on Shastry-Sutherland square lattice (SSL) [23] was proposed, in which the diagonal Heisenberg exchanges J 2 provide geometrical frustration, and the phase diagram was determined on J k -J 2 plane within mean-field approximation [24,25].…”