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Title: Tricritical point from high-field magnetoelastic and metamagnetic effects in UN

Journal Article · · Scientific Reports
 [1];  [1];  [2]; ORCiD logo [2];  [3];  [2];  [4];  [5];  [1]
  1. Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
  2. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
  3. Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States); Univ. of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV (United States). Dept. of Chemistry and Biochemistry, High Pressure Science and Engineering Center
  4. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Maria Curie-Sklodowska Univ., Lublin (Poland). Inst. of Physics
  5. European Commission, Karlsruhe (Germany). Joint Research Centre
+ Show Author Affiliations

Uranium nitride (UN) is one of the most studied actinide materials as it is a promising fuel for the next generation of nuclear reactors. Despite large experimental and theoretical efforts, some of the fundamental questions such as degree of 5 f–electron localization/delocalization and its relationship to magneto-vibrational properties are not resolved yet. We show that the magnetostriction of UN measured in pulsed magnetic fields up to 65 T and below the Néel temperature is large and exhibits complex behavior with two transitions. While the high field anomaly is a field-induced metamagnetic-like transition and affects both magnetisation and magnetostriction, the low field anomaly does not contribute to the magnetic susceptibility. Our data suggest a change in the nature of the metamagnetic transition from first to second order-like at a tricritical point at T tri ~24 K and H tri ~52 T. The induced magnetic moment at 60 T might suggest that only one subset of magnetic moments has aligned along the field direction. Using the results obtained here we have constructed a magnetic phase diagram of UN. Our studies demonstrate that dilatometry in high fields is an effective method to investigate the magneto-structural coupling in actinide materials.

Research Organization:
Idaho National Laboratory (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States); Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); National Science Foundation (NSF); USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
AC07-05ID14517; DMR-1157490; AC52-06NA25396
OSTI ID:
1395024
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1407862; OSTI ID: 1412856; OSTI ID: 1498253
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-17-30081; LA-UR-16-28832; INL/JOU-16-40525-Rev000; PII: 6154
Journal Information:
Scientific Reports, Vol. 7, Issue 1; ISSN 2045-2322
Publisher:
Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Uranium azide photolysis results in C–H bond activation and provides evidence for a terminal uranium nitride journal July 2010
Equation of State in the Neighborhood of the Critical Point journal December 1965
High resolution magnetostriction measurements in pulsed magnetic fields using fiber Bragg gratings journal March 2010
Metamagnetism journal September 1977
Magnetic Susceptibility of UC 1- x N x from 4° to 1,100°K journal January 1972
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Cited By (3)

Combination of thermal and electric properties’ measurement techniques in a single setup suitable for radioactive materials in controlled environments and based on the 3 ω approach journal April 2018
Magnetotransport as a probe of phase transformations in metallic antiferromagnets: The case of UIrS i 3 journal July 2019
Fiber Bragg Grating Dilatometry in Extreme Magnetic Field and Cryogenic Conditions journal November 2017

Figures / Tables (6)

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