Experimental evidence of noncollinear magnetism in gadolinium tetraboride

Fernández-Rodríguez J.

Blanco J. A.

Brown P. J.

Katsumata Koichi

Kikkawa Akiko

Iga Fumitoshi

Michimura Shinji

Physical Review B - Condensed Matter and Materials Physics

Recently, the collinear or noncollinear character of the magnetic structure of gadolinium tetraboride (GdB4), laying the magnetic moments in the ab plane, becomes a matter of controversy. In the present study, the observations obtained from resistivity, specific heat, and magnetic susceptibility measurements on a single crystal sample contain no evidence for a structural phase transition in this material above or below the Néel temperature TN. In addition to these measurements, the resonant x-ray Bragg diffraction structure factors derived from all the possible arrangements for Gd magnetic moments compatible with the room temperature tetragonal P4/mbm space group are calculated. The intensity derived with Shubnikov magnetic P4/m′b′m′ and P4′ /m′b′m space groups are found to account for the previously published resonant x-ray diffraction data on GdB4. (Both Shubnikov groups have magnetoelectric symmetry.)

eng

American Physical Society

Copyright (c) 2005 American Physical Society.

[ISSN] 0163-1829

[DOI] 10.1103/PhysRevB.72.052407

[NCID] AA11187113

[DOI] http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.72.052407