Antiferroquadrupole order and magnetic field induced octupole in CeB6

Matsumura Takeshi

Yonemura Takumi

Kunimori Keisuke

Sera Masafumi

Iga Fumitoshi

Nagao Tatsuya

Igarashi Jun-ichi

Physical Review B

We have studied the antiferroquadrupole ordered phase of CeB6 in magnetic fields by resonant x-ray diffraction. By analyzing the significant change in the energy spectrum on reversing the field direction along [1̅ 1 0], we have deduced field dependencies of the antiferro components of magnetic dipole, electric quadrupole, and magnetic octupole moments which are simultaneously induced in the Ce 4f orbital with a propagation vector (1/2,1/2,1/2). The data treatments are based on theoretically calculated spectral functions. The existence of the field-induced octupole is also concluded for other field directions. We also show direct evidence for the formation of a linear-combination-type antiferroquadrupole order parameter in magnetic fields, which is expressed as 〈αOyz+βOzx+γOxy〉 and changes continuously with the field direction (α,β,γ). A possibility of observing the quadrupolar fluctuation is also pointed out.

Physics [ 420 ]

eng

American Physical Society

(c) 2012 American Physical Society

[ISSN] 1098-0121

[DOI] 10.1103/PhysRevB.85.174417

[NCID] AA11187113

[DOI] http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.85.174417