Higgs transition from a magnetic Coulomb liquid to a ferromagnet in Yb2Ti2O7

Lieh-Jeng Chang (), Shigeki Onoda (), Yixi Su, Ying-Jer Kao, Ku-Ding Tsuei, Yukio Yasui, Kazuhisa Kakurai and Martin Richard Lees
Additional contact information
Lieh-Jeng Chang: National Cheng Kung University
Shigeki Onoda: Condensed Matter Theory Laboratory, RIKEN
Yixi Su: Jülich Centre for Neutron Science JCNS-FRM II, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Outstation at FRM II, Lichtenbergstrasse 1, D-85747 Garching, Germany.
Ying-Jer Kao: National Taiwan University
Ku-Ding Tsuei: National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center
Yukio Yasui: Nagoya University, Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya 464-8602, Japan.
Kazuhisa Kakurai: Quantum Beam Science Directorate, Japan Atomic Energy Agency
Martin Richard Lees: University of Warwick

Nature Communications, 2012, vol. 3, issue 1, 1-7

Abstract: Abstract In a class of frustrated magnets known as spin ice, magnetic monopoles emerge as classical defects and interact via the magnetic Coulomb law. With quantum-mechanical interactions, these magnetic charges are carried by fractionalized bosonic quasi-particles, spinons, which can undergo Bose–Einstein condensation through a first-order transition via the Higgs mechanism. Here, we report evidence of a Higgs transition from a magnetic Coulomb liquid to a ferromagnet in single-crystal Yb2Ti2O7. Polarized neutron scattering experiments show that the diffuse [111]-rod scattering and pinch-point features, which develop on cooling are suddenly suppressed below TC~0.21 K, where magnetic Bragg peaks and a full depolarization of the neutron spins are observed with thermal hysteresis, indicating a first-order ferromagnetic transition. Our results are explained on the basis of a quantum spin-ice model, whose high-temperature phase is effectively described as a magnetic Coulomb liquid, whereas the ground state shows a nearly collinear ferromagnetism with gapped spin excitations.

Date: 2012
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms1989 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:3:y:2012:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms1989

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms1989

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().