Issue |
Europhys. Lett.
Volume 75, Number 1, July 2006
|
|
---|---|---|
Page(s) | 160 - 166 | |
Section | Condensed matter: electronic structure, electrical, magnetic, and optical properties | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1209/epl/i2006-10084-x | |
Published online | 02 June 2006 |
Magnetoelastic paradox: Absence of symmetry-breaking distortions
below
in antiferromagnetic systems without orbital moment
1
Institut für Physikalische Chemie, Universität Wien - Währingerstr. 42, Austria
2
Instituto de Fisica, UFRJ - Caixa Postal 68528, 21945-970, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
3
Institut für Festkörperphysik, Technische Universität Dresden 01069-Dresden, Germany
4
Institut für Festkörperphysik, Technische Universität Wien - 1040-Wien, Austria
5
Laboratoire Léon Brillouin, CEA-CNRS Saclay - 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France
Received:
24
February
2006
Accepted:
12
May
2006
Phase transitions are often associated with symmetry breaking.
In case of magnetic order time reversal symmetry is broken and
this leads to magnetostriction. For magnetic systems without
orbital moment () the only source of magnetostriction is
believed to be the exchange striction (ES). If the systems, for
instance
-based compounds (
,
), order
ferromagnetically (fm) no lattice distortions are expected from the
standard model of rare-earth magnetism, whereas in the
antiferromagnetically (afm) ordered compounds symmetry-breaking
lattice distortions should occur. These latter prediction of the
theory is in complete contrast to all available experimental data on
antiferromagnets. They show in many cases large
magnetostrictive effects, but no symmetry breaking. Thus we can
formulate the “magnetoelastic paradox”: in afm systems without
orbital moment (
) symmetry-breaking distortions below the
Néel temperature are expected, but have not been found.
New experimental data indicates, that the magnetoelastic paradox is only
present in zero field and may be lifted by a small magnetic field.
PACS: 75.80.+q – Magnetomechanical and magnetoelectric effects, magnetostriction
© EDP Sciences, 2006
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