Incommensurate antiferromagnetic phase in UNiGe

Journal Article · Tue Nov 15 04:00:00 EST 1994 · Journal of Applied Physics; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.358286· OSTI ID:6955867

Sechovsky, V; Havela, L; Svoboda, P ^[1]; Purwanto, A; Larson, A C; Robinson, R A ^[2]; Prokes, K; Nakotte, H; de Boer, F R ^[3]; Maletta, H ^[4]

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1. Department of Metal Physics, Charles University, CZ 121 16 Praha 2 (Czech Republic)
2. LANSCE, Los Alamos, National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545 (United States)
3. Van der Waals-Zeeman Laboratory, University of Amsterdam, NL 1018XE Amsterdam (Netherlands)
4. BENSC, Hahn-Meitner-Institut, D 14 109 Berlin (Germany)

By specific-heat, magnetization, electrical resistivity, and neutron-diffraction measurements on a single crystal we have confirmed that UNiGe orders antiferromagnetically below 50.5 K into an incommensurate phase with [bold q]=(0,1/2,[minus]1/2)[plus minus](0,[delta],[delta]), [delta][similar to]0.15. [delta] decreases continuously with decreasing temperature to [similar to]0.123 at 41.5 K, where the incommensurate phase vanishes in a first-order phase transition and a commensurate antiferromagnetic structure with [bold q]=(0,1/2,1/2) sets in and remains stable down to the lowest temperatures. If a magnetic field sufficient to induce a metalmagnetic transition (1--5 T) is applied along the [ital c] axis, both antiferromagnetic phases are transformed to an uncompensated AF phase with [ital q]=(0,1/3,1/3) yielding a nonzero magnetization [ital M][approx]1/3[times][ital M][sub [ital S]]. The latter structure is destroyed and a complete alignment of U moments is achieved in fields above 10 T. The strikingly different [ital B]-[ital T] diagrams observed for a magnetic field applied along different crystallographic directions reflect strongly anisotropic exchange interactions.

• OSTI ID: 6955867
• Journal Information: Journal of Applied Physics; (United States), Journal Name: Journal of Applied Physics; (United States) Vol. 76:10; ISSN JAPIAU; ISSN 0021-8979
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
360104* -- Metals & Alloys-- Physical Properties
ACTINIDE COMPOUNDS
COHERENT SCATTERING
DIFFRACTION
ELECTRIC CONDUCTIVITY
ELECTRICAL PROPERTIES
GERMANIUM COMPOUNDS
MAGNETIC PROPERTIES
NEUTRON DIFFRACTION
NICKEL COMPOUNDS
PHASE TRANSFORMATIONS
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
SCATTERING
SPECIFIC HEAT
TEMPERATURE DEPENDENCE
TEMPERATURE RANGE
TEMPERATURE RANGE 0013-0065 K
THERMODYNAMIC PROPERTIES
TRANSITION ELEMENT COMPOUNDS
URANIUM COMPOUNDS