Magnetic field induced transition in vanadium spinels.
We study vanadium spinels AV2O4 (A = Cd,Mg) in pulsed magnetic fields up to 65 T. A jump in magnetization at μ0H≈40  T is observed in the single-crystal MgV2O4, indicating a field induced quantum phase transition between two distinct magnetic orders. In the multiferroic CdV2O4, the field induced transition is accompanied by a suppression of the electric polarization. By modeling the magnetic properties in the presence of strong spin-orbit coupling characteristic of vanadium spinels, we show that both features of the field induced transition can be successfully explained by including the effects of the local trigonal crystal field.
NHMFL Materials Physics and Applications, T-4 and CNLS, Los Alamos Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545, USA.
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Mun
Theoretical Division, T-4 and CNLS, Los Alamos Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545, USA.
Gia-Wei
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Chern
Departamento de Fisica Aplicada, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, 15782 Santiago de Compostela, Spain.
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Pardo
CIQUS, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, 15782 Santiago de Compostela, Spain.
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Rivadulla
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee 37996-1200, USA.
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Sinclair
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee 37996-1200, USA.
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Zhou
NHMFL Materials Physics and Applications, T-4 and CNLS, Los Alamos Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545, USA.
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Zapf
Theoretical Division, T-4 and CNLS, Los Alamos Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545, USA.
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Batista