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Observation of magnetic fragmentation in spin ice
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Petit, Sylvain, Lhotel, Elsa, Canals, B., Ciomaga Hatnean, Monica, Ollivier, J. (Jacques), Mutka, Hannu, Ressouche, E., Wildes, Andrew R., Lees, Martin R. and Balakrishnan, G. (2016) Observation of magnetic fragmentation in spin ice. Nature Physics, 12 (8). pp. 746-750. doi:10.1038/NPHYS3710
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/NPHYS3710
Abstract
Fractionalised excitations that emerge from a many body system have revealed rich physics and concepts, from composite fermions in two-dimensional electron systems, revealed through the fractional quantum Hall effect, to spinons in antiferromagnetic chains and, more recently, fractionalisation of Dirac electrons in graphene and magnetic monopoles in spin ice. Even more surprising is the fragmentation of the degrees of freedom themselves, leading to coexisting and a priori independent ground states. This puzzling phenomenon was recently put forward in the context of spin ice, in which the magnetic moment field can fragment, resulting in a dual ground state consisting of a fluctuating spin liquid, a so-called Coulomb phase, on top of a magnetic monopole crystal. Here we show, by means of neutron scattering measurements, that such fragmentation occurs in the spin ice candidate Nd2Zr2O7. We observe the spectacular co-existence of an antiferromagnetic order induced by the monopole crystallisation and a fluctuating state with ferromagnetic correlations. Experimentally, this fragmentation manifests itself via the superposition of magnetic Bragg peaks, characteristic of the ordered phase, and a pinch point pattern, characteristic of the Coulomb phase. These results highlight the relevance of the fragmentation concept to describe the physics of systems that are simultaneously ordered and fluctuating.
| Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Subjects: | Q Science > QC Physics | ||||||
| Divisions: | Faculty of Science > Physics | ||||||
| Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Physics., Quantum theory., Magnetization., Magnetic resonance. | ||||||
| Journal or Publication Title: | Nature Physics | ||||||
| Publisher: | Nature Publishing Group | ||||||
| ISSN: | 1745-2473 | ||||||
| Official Date: | 4 April 2016 | ||||||
| Dates: |
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| Volume: | 12 | ||||||
| Number: | 8 | ||||||
| Page Range: | pp. 746-750 | ||||||
| DOI: | 10.1038/NPHYS3710 | ||||||
| Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||
| Publication Status: | Published | ||||||
| Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access | ||||||
| Funder: | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) | ||||||
| Grant number: | EP/M028771/1 |
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