TY - JOUR
T1 - Helical ordering of spin trimers in a distorted kagome lattice of GD3Ru4Al12 studied by resonant X-ray diffraction
AU - Matsumura, Takeshi
AU - Ozono, Yusaku
AU - Nakamura, Shintaro
AU - Kabeya, Noriyuki
AU - Ochiai, Akira
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant number 18K187370A. The synchrotron experiments were performed under the approval of the Photon Factory Program Advisory Committee (No. 2018G039). This work was also supported by Chirality Research Center (Crescent) in Hiroshima University and JSPS Core-to-Core Program, A. Advanced Research Networks.
Publisher Copyright:
©2019 The Physical Society of Japan
PY - 2019
Y1 - 2019
N2 - Successive magnetic phase transitions at T1 = 17.5 K and T2 = 18.5 K in Gd3Ru4Al12, with a distorted kagome lattice of Gd ions, is studied using resonant X-ray diffraction with polarization analysis. It has been suggested that in this compound the S = 7=2 spins on the nearest-neighbor Gd-triangle form a ferromagnetic trimer and the Gd lattice can be effectively considered as an antiferromagnetic triangular lattice of S = 21=2 spin trimers [S. Nakamura et al., Phys. Rev. B 98, 054410 (2018)]. We show that the magnetic order in this system is described by an incommensurate wave vector q ð0:27; 0; 0Þ, which varies slightly with temperature. In the low temperature phase below T1, the experimental results are well explained by considering that the spin trimers form a helical order with both the c-axis and c-plane components. In the intermediate phase above T1, the c-axis component vanishes, resulting in a sinusoical structure within the c-plane. The sinusoidal-helical transition at T1 can be regarded as an ordering of chiral degree of freedom, which is degenerate in the intermediate phase.
AB - Successive magnetic phase transitions at T1 = 17.5 K and T2 = 18.5 K in Gd3Ru4Al12, with a distorted kagome lattice of Gd ions, is studied using resonant X-ray diffraction with polarization analysis. It has been suggested that in this compound the S = 7=2 spins on the nearest-neighbor Gd-triangle form a ferromagnetic trimer and the Gd lattice can be effectively considered as an antiferromagnetic triangular lattice of S = 21=2 spin trimers [S. Nakamura et al., Phys. Rev. B 98, 054410 (2018)]. We show that the magnetic order in this system is described by an incommensurate wave vector q ð0:27; 0; 0Þ, which varies slightly with temperature. In the low temperature phase below T1, the experimental results are well explained by considering that the spin trimers form a helical order with both the c-axis and c-plane components. In the intermediate phase above T1, the c-axis component vanishes, resulting in a sinusoical structure within the c-plane. The sinusoidal-helical transition at T1 can be regarded as an ordering of chiral degree of freedom, which is degenerate in the intermediate phase.
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U2 - 10.7566/JPSJ.88.023704
DO - 10.7566/JPSJ.88.023704
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85060545739
VL - 88
JO - Journal of the Physical Society of Japan
JF - Journal of the Physical Society of Japan
SN - 0031-9015
IS - 2
M1 - 023704-1
ER -