Anomalous compressibility and magnetostriction of beryllium under the conditions of diamagnetic domain formation

Abstract

Magnetostriction oscillations are measured for a single-crystal beryllium sample shaped like a plate perpendicular to the direction of the magnetic field. In the range of 2–5 T at a temperature of 1.5 K, i.e., in the region of diamagnetic domain formation (Condon domains), the striction signal has the saw-tooth shape corresponding to the alternation of homogeneous and nonhomogeneous (domain) states. The formation of the domain structure is accompanied by an anomalous increase in compressibility; the oscillations in this coefficient are more than one hundred times greater than the value given by the standard theory. An analysis of the results indicates that the domain wall width should increase with increasing plate thickness.