Professor Paolo G. Radaelli OSI

Abstract:

We have studied the magnetostructural phase diagram of multiferroic TbMn2O5 as a function of temperature and magnetic field by neutron diffraction. Dielectric and magnetic anomalies are found to be associated with steps in the magnetic propagation vector, including a rare example of a commensurate-incommensurate transition on cooling below 24 K, and in the structural parameters. The geometrically frustrated magnetic structure is stabilized by "canted antiferroelectric" displacements of the Mn3+ ions, an example of the magnetic Jahn-Teller effect. The Tb moments order ferromagnetically at low temperatures in an applied field, while the Mn magnetic structure is largely unchanged.

Abstract:

The crystal structure of Ca_{2-x}Sr_xRuO_4 with 0.2 < x < 1.0 has been studied by diffraction techniques and by high resolution capacitance dilatometry as a function of temperature and magnetic field. Upon cooling in zero magnetic field below about 25 K the structure shrinks along the c-direction and elongates in the a, b planes (0.2 < x < 1.0), whereas the opposite occurs upon cooling at high-field (x = 0.2 and 0.5). These findings indicate an orbital rearrangement driven by temperature and magnetic field, which accompanies the metamagnetic transition in these compounds.