Field-induced magnetic phase transitions and memory effect in bilayer ruthenate Ca$_3$Ru$_2$O$_7$ with Fe substitution

TL;DR

This study investigates complex magnetic phase transitions and memory effects in Fe-substituted bilayer ruthenate Ca3Ru2O7, revealing field-induced metastability and incommensurate-to-commensurate magnetic transitions using neutron diffraction and magnetotransport measurements.

Contribution

It reports the discovery of field-induced magnetic phase transitions and metastable states in Ca3(Ru,Fe)2O7, highlighting the role of quenched kinetics at low temperatures.

Findings

First-order incommensurate-to-commensurate magnetic transitions observed.

Metastable states depend on temperature and magnetic field orientation.

Field-induced metastability linked to quenched kinetics at low temperature.

Abstract

Bilayer ruthenate Ca$_3$(Ru$_{1-x}$Fe$_x$)$_2$O$_7$ ($x$ = 0.05) exhibits an incommensurate magnetic soliton lattice driven by the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction. Here we report complex field-induced magnetic phase transitions and memory effect in this system via single-crystal neutron diffraction and magnetotransport measurements. We observe first-order incommensurate-to-commensurate magnetic transitions upon applying the magnetic field both along and perpendicular to the propagation axis of the incommensurate spin structure. Furthermore, we find that the metastable states formed upon decreasing the magnetic field depend on the temperature and the applied field orientation. We suggest that the observed field-induced metastability may be ascribable to the quenched kinetics at low temperature.