4 research outputs found
Neutron Scattering Study of Crystal Field Energy Levels and Field Dependence of the Magnetic Order in Superconducting HoNi2B2C
Elastic and inelastic neutron scattering measurements have been carried out
to investigate the magnetic properties of superconducting (Tc~8K) HoNi2B2C. The
inelastic measurements reveal that the lowest two crystal field transitions out
of the ground state occurat 11.28(3) and 16.00(2) meV, while the transition of
4.70(9) meV between these two levels is observed at elevated temperatures. The
temperature dependence of the intensities of these transitions is consistent
with both the ground state and these higher levels being magnetic doublets. The
system becomes magnetically long range ordered below 8K, and since this
ordering energy kTN ~ 0.69meV << 11.28meV the magnetic properties in the
ordered phase are dominated by the ground-state spin dynamics only. The low
temperature structure, which coexists with superconductivity, consists of
ferromagnetic sheets of Ho{3+ moments in the a-b plane, with the sheets coupled
antiferromagnetically along the c-axis. The magnetic state that initially forms
on cooling, however, is dominated by an incommensurate spiral antiferromagnetic
state along the c-axis, with wave vector qc ~0.054 A-1, in which these
ferromagnetic sheets are canted from their low temperature antiparallel
configuration by ~17 deg. The intensity for this spiral state reaches a maximum
near the reentrant superconducting transition at ~5K; the spiral state then
collapses at lower temperature in favor of the commensurate antiferromagnetic
state. We have investigated the field dependence of the magnetic order at and
above this reentrant superconducting transition. Initially the field rotates
the powder particles to align the a-b plane along the field direction,
demonstrating that the moments strongly prefer to lie within this plane due to
the crystal field anisotropy. Upon subsequently increasing the field atComment: RevTex, 7 pages, 11 figures (available upon request); Physica
Specific Heat Study of the Magnetic Superconductor HoNi2B2C
The complex magnetic transitions and superconductivity of HoNi2B2C were
studied via the dependence of the heat capacity on temperature and in-plane
field angle. We provide an extended, comprehensive magnetic phase diagram for B
// [100] and B // [110] based on the thermodynamic measurements. Three magnetic
transitions and the superconducting transition were clearly observed. The 5.2 K
transition (T_{N}) shows a hysteresis with temperature, indicating the first
order nature of the transition at B=0 T. The 6 K transition (T_{M}), namely the
onset of the long-range ordering, displays a dramatic in-plane anisotropy:
T_{M} increases with increasing magnetic field for B // [100] while it
decreases with increasing field for B // [110]. The anomalous anisotropy in
T_{M} indicates that the transition is related to the a-axis spiral structure.
The 5.5 K transition (T^{*}) shows similar behavior to the 5.2 K transition,
i.e., a small in-plane anisotropy and scaling with Ising model. This last
transition is ascribed to the change from a^{*} dominant phase to c^{*}
dominant phase.Comment: 9 pages, 11 figure