Study of the magnetic properties of URu2Si2 under uniaxial stress by neutron scattering

TL;DR

This study compares the magnetic behavior of URu2Si2 under uniaxial stress and hydrostatic pressure, revealing critical stress values, the role of U-U distance, and changes in magnetic excitations associated with the hidden order to antiferromagnetic transition.

Contribution

It demonstrates that uniaxial stress induces a transition similar to hydrostatic pressure but at lower critical values, highlighting the importance of lattice parameters in magnetic properties.

Findings

Critical uniaxial stress {}xa is 0.33 GPa, lower than hydrostatic pressure px=0.5 GPa.

Magnetic excitations at Q0 and Q1 shift energies under stress, indicating changes in the magnetic state.

A critical energy gap of ~1.2 meV at {}xa suggests a phase transition point.

Abstract

The aim of this study is to compare the magnetic behavior of URu2Si2 under uniaxial stress along the a-axis with the behavior under hydrostatic pressure. Both are very similar, but uniaxial stress presents a critical stress {\sigma}xa smaller (0.33(5)GPa) than the hydrostatic critical pressure px =0.5 GPa where the ground state switches from HO (hidden order) to AF (antiferromagnetic) ground state. From these critical values and from Larmor neutron diffraction (LND), we conclude that the magnetic properties are governed by the shortest U-U distance in the plane (a lattice parameter). Under stress, the orthorhombic unit cell stays centered. A key point shown by this study is the presence of a threshold for the uniaxial stress along the a-axis before the appearance of the large AF moment which indicates no-mixture of order parameter (OP) between the HO ground state and the AF one as under hydrostatic pressure. The two most intense longitudinal magnetic excitations at Q0=(1,0,0) and Q1=(0.6,0,0) were measured in the HO state: the excitation at Q0 decreases in energy while the excitation at Q1 increases in energy with the uniaxial stress along the a-axis. The decrease of the energy of the excitation at Q0 seems to indicate a critical energy gap value of 1.2(1) meV at {\sigma}xa. A similar value was derived from studies under hydrostatic pressure at px.