X-ray diffraction by magnetic charges (monopoles)

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that magnetic monopoles in lithium orthophosphates can be detected via x-ray diffraction at atomic resonance energies, providing a new method to observe these elusive magnetic charges.

Contribution

The authors prove that magnetic monopoles in lithium orthophosphates produce detectable x-ray diffraction signals and provide calculated structure factors for specific compounds to guide experiments.

Findings

Magnetic monopoles cause x-ray diffraction at resonance energies.

Calculated structure factors for LiCoPO4 and LiNiPO4.

Guidance for future experimental detection of magnetic charges.

Abstract

Magnetic charges, or magnetic monopoles, may form in the electronic structure of magnetic materials where ions are deprived of symmetry with respect to spatial inversion. Predicted in 2009, the strange magnetic, pseudoscalars have recently been found different from zero in simulations of electronic structures of some magnetically ordered, orthorhombic, lithium orthophosphates (LiMPO4). We prove that magnetic charges in lithium orthophosphates diffract x-rays tuned in energy to an atomic resonance, and to guide future experiments we calculate appropriate unit-cell structure factors for monoclinic LiCoPO4 and orthorhombic LiNiPO4.