Title: Understanding Reentrance in Frustrated Magnets: The Case of the Er 2 Sn 2 O 7 Pyrochlore

Journal Article · · Physical Review Letters
 [1]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [3]; ORCiD logo [4];  [5];  [5];  [6]; ORCiD logo [7];  [8];  [9]
  1. Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins, CO (United States); OSTI
  2. Univ. of Waterloo, ON (Canada)
  3. Univ. de Bordeaux, Talence (France)
  4. Univ. of Missouri, Columbia, MO (United States)
  5. Clemson Univ., SC (United States)
  6. National Inst. of Standards and Technology (NIST), Gaithersburg, MD (United States)
  7. Southern Connecticut State Univ., New Haven, CT (United States)
  8. Univ. of Waterloo, ON (Canada); Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR), Toronto, ON (Canada). MaRS Centre
  9. Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins, CO (United States); Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR), Toronto, ON (Canada). MaRS Centre
+ Show Author Affiliations

Reentrance, the return of a system from an ordered phase to a previously encountered less-ordered one as a controlled parameter is continuously varied, is a recurring theme found in disparate physical systems, yet its microscopic cause is often not investigated thoroughly. Here, through detailed characterization and theoretical modeling, we uncover the microscopic mechanism behind reentrance in the strongly frustrated pyrochlore antiferromagnet Er2Sn2O7. We use single crystal heat capacity measurements to expose that Er2Sn2O7 exhibits multiple instances of reentrance in its magnetic field B vs temperature T phase diagram for magnetic fields along three cubic high symmetry directions. Through classical Monte Carlo simulations, mean field theory, and classical linear spin-wave expansions, we argue that the origins of the multiple occurrences of reentrance observed in Er2Sn2O7 are linked to soft modes. These soft modes arise from phase competition and enhance thermal fluctuations that entropically stabilize a specific ordered phase, resulting in an increased transition temperature for certain field values and thus the reentrant behavior. Our work represents a detailed examination into the mechanisms responsible for reentrance in a frustrated magnet and may serve as a template for the interpretation of reentrant phenomena in other physical systems.

Research Organization:
Clemson Univ., SC (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR); USDOE Office of Science (SC)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0020071
OSTI ID:
1980246
Journal Information:
Physical Review Letters, Journal Name: Physical Review Letters Journal Issue: 27 Vol. 127; ISSN 0031-9007
Publisher:
American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
Monte Carlo methods
Physics
antiferromagnetism
exchange interaction
frustrated magnetism
magnetism
mean field theory
phase diagrams
pyrochlores
single crystal materials
specific heat