Universal magnetic structure of the half-magnetization phase in Cr-based spinels

Phys Rev Lett. 2010 Jan 29;104(4):047201. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.104.047201. Epub 2010 Jan 26.

Abstract

Using an elastic neutron scattering technique under a pulsed magnetic field up to 30 T, we determined the magnetic structure in the half-magnetization plateau phase in the spinel CdCr2O4. The magnetic structure has a cubic P4{3}32 symmetry, which is the same as that observed in HgCr2O4. This suggests that despite their different zero-field ground states a universal field-induced spin-lattice coupling mechanism is at work in the Cr-based spinels.