Low temperature crystal structure and local magnetometry for the geometrically frustrated pyrochlore Tb2Ti2O7

TL;DR

This study combines synchrotron diffraction and muSR techniques to investigate the low-temperature structure and magnetism of the frustrated pyrochlore Tb2Ti2O7, finding no structural change and limited evidence for a magnetization plateau.

Contribution

It provides detailed low-temperature structural and magnetic measurements of Tb2Ti2O7, clarifying its magnetic behavior without structural phase transitions.

Findings

No structural change down to 4 K.

Magnetic measurements at 20 mK show limited evidence of a magnetization plateau.

Data are consistent with previous susceptibility measurements.

Abstract

We report synchrotron radiation diffraction and muon spin rotation (muSR) measurements on the frustrated pyrochlore magnet Tb2Ti2O7. The powder diffraction study of a crushed crystal fragment does not reveal any structural change down to 4 K. The muSR measurements performed at 20 mK on a mosaic of single crystals with an external magnetic field applied along a three-fold axis are consistent with published a.c. magnetic-susceptibility measurements at 16 mK. While an inflection point could be present around an internal field intensity slightly above 0.3 T, the data barely support the presence of a magnetization plateau.