Spontaneous strain due to ferroquadrupolar ordering in UCu$_2$Sn

TL;DR

This study detects spontaneous strain in UCu$_2$Sn due to ferroquadrupolar ordering at 16 K, using high-resolution thermal expansion measurements, revealing subtle lattice distortions associated with the phase transition.

Contribution

It provides direct evidence of spontaneous strain linked to ferroquadrupolar ordering in UCu$_2$Sn through precise thermal expansion measurements, which was not previously observed.

Findings

Detected spontaneous $e_{xx} - e_{yy}$ strain in UCu$_2$Sn

Ferroquadrupolar ordering causes measurable lattice distortion

Uniaxial pressure influences transition temperature

Abstract

The ternary uranium compound UCu$_2$Sn with a hexagonal ZrPt$_2$Al-type structure shows a phase transition at 16 K. We reported previously that huge lattice-softening is accompanied by the phase transition, which originates from ferroquadrupolar ordering of the ground state non-Kramers doublet $\Gamma_5$. A macroscopic strain, which is expected to emerge spontaneously, was not detected by powder X-ray diffraction in the temperature range between 4.2 and 300 K. To search the spontaneous strain, we have carried out thermal expansion measurements on a single-crystalline sample along the $a$, $b$ and $c$ axes using a capacitance technique with the resolution of $10^{-8}$. In the present experiment, we found the spontaneous $e_{xx} - e_{yy}$ strain which couples to the ground state doublet $\Gamma_5$. The effect of uniaxial pressure along the $a$, $b$ and $c$ axes on the transition temperature is also discussed.