Pressure-induced inhomogeneous chiral-spin ground state in FeGe

(57)Fe nuclear forward scattering on the chiral magnet FeGe reveals an extremely large precursor phase region above the helimagnetic ordering temperature T(C)(p) and beyond the pressure-induced quantum phase transition at 19 GPa. The decrease of the magnetic hyperfine field ⟨B(hf)⟩ with pressure is...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review letters 2015-01, Vol.114 (1), p.016803-016803
Main Authors: Barla, A, Wilhelm, H, Forthaus, M K, Strohm, C, Rüffer, R, Schmidt, M, Koepernik, K, Rössler, U K, Abd-Elmeguid, M M
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Equivalence
Fluctuation
Hyperfine structure
Inhomogeneity
Mathematical analysis
Phase transformations
Precursors
Signatures
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Summary:(57)Fe nuclear forward scattering on the chiral magnet FeGe reveals an extremely large precursor phase region above the helimagnetic ordering temperature T(C)(p) and beyond the pressure-induced quantum phase transition at 19 GPa. The decrease of the magnetic hyperfine field ⟨B(hf)⟩ with pressure is accompanied by a large increase of the width of the distribution of ⟨B(hf)⟩, indicating a strong quasistatic inhomogeneity of the magnetic states in the precursor region. Hyperfine fields of the order of 4 T (equivalent to a magnetic moment μ(Fe)≈0.4μ(B)) persist up to 28.5 GPa. No signatures of magnetic order have been found at about 31 GPa. The results, supported by ab initio calculations, suggest that chiral magnetic precursor phenomena, such as an inhomogeneous chiral-spin state, are vastly enlarged due to increasing spin fluctuations as FeGe is tuned to its quantum phase transition.
ISSN:0031-9007
1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.114.016803