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Intense low-energy ferromagnetic fluctuations in the antiferromagnetic heavy-fermion metal CeB6

Nature Materials volume 13, pages 682–687 (2014)Cite this article

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Abstract

Heavy-fermion metals exhibit a plethora of low-temperature ordering phenomena 1,2,3,4. Among these are the so-called hidden-order phases 4,5,6,7,8 that, in contrast to conventional magnetic order, are invisible to standard neutron diffraction experiments. One of the structurally most simple hidden-order compounds, CeB6, has been intensively studied for an elusive phase that was attributed to the antiferroquadrupolar ordering of cerium-4f moments 9,10,11,12. As the ground state of CeB6 is characterized by a more conventional antiferromagnetic (AFM) order 9, the low-temperature physics of this system has generally been assumed to be governed solely by AFM interactions between the dipolar and multipolar Ce moments 13,14. Here we overturn this established picture by observing an intense ferromagnetic (FM) low-energy collective mode that dominates the magnetic excitation spectrum of CeB6. Inelastic neutron-scattering data reveal that the intensity of this FM excitation significantly exceeds that of conventional spin-wave magnons emanating from the AFM wavevectors, thus placing CeB6 much closer to a FM instability than previously anticipated. This propensity for ferromagnetism may account for much of the unexplained behaviour of CeB6, and should lead to a re-examination of existing theories that have so far largely neglected the role of FM interactions.

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Figure 1: Constant-energy maps obtained from the TOF data.
Figure 2: Energy–momentum cuts.
Figure 3: Correlation between the dispersion of collective magnon excitations in the AFM state and the momentum-dependent quasielastic linewidth in the AFQ state.

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Change history

  • 22 May 2014

    In the version of this Letter originally published online, in Fig. 1i, in the top row, Σ was missing a prime; in Fig. 2c, in all three panels, the R points shouldn't have had primes; in Fig. 2d, in the right panel, the label Γ above 1.0 should have had two primes; in Fig. 3a,c, the coordinates for Γ' should have read '(001)'; in Fig. 3b,d, the (001) curve should have been labelled Γ'; in Fig. 3b inset, the arrow for the L axis was pointing in the wrong direction. These errors have now been corrected in all versions of the Letter.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to S. V. Demishev, A. Ivanov, V. Kataev, A. Schneidewind, J. Sichelschmidt and P. Thalmeier for enlightening discussions. H.J. was supported by the Max Planck POSTECH Center for Complex Phase Materials with KR2011-0031558. D.S.I. acknowledges support from the German Research Foundation (DFG) under grant IN 209/3-1.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Max-Planck-Institut für Festkörperforschung, Heisenbergstraße 1, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany

    Hoyoung Jang, G. Friemel, B. Keimer & D. S. Inosov

  2. Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, California 94025, USA

    Hoyoung Jang

  3. Institut Laue-Langevin, 6 rue Jules Horowitz, BP 156, 38042 Grenoble Cedex, France

    J. Ollivier

  4. I. M. Frantsevich Institute for Problems of Material Sciences of NAS, 3 Krzhyzhanovsky str. 03680 Kiev, Ukraine,

    A. V. Dukhnenko, N. Yu. Shitsevalova & V. B. Filipov

  5. Institut für Festkörperphysik, TU Dresden, D-01069 Dresden, Germany

    D. S. Inosov

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  1. Hoyoung Jang
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Contributions

A.V.D., N.Yu.S. and V.B.F. synthesized the single-crystalline sample. H.J., G.F. and D.S.I. performed the INS experiments and analysed the data. H.J., G.F., B.K. and D.S.I. developed the physical interpretation. J.O. provided instrument support at ILL. H.J. and D.S.I. created the figures and wrote the manuscript. B.K. and D.S.I. supervised the project.

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Correspondence to D. S. Inosov.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Jang, H., Friemel, G., Ollivier, J. et al. Intense low-energy ferromagnetic fluctuations in the antiferromagnetic heavy-fermion metal CeB6. Nature Mater 13, 682–687 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat3976

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