Abstract
Magnetic frustration in metals is scarce and hard to pinpoint, but exciting due to the possibility of the emergence of fascinating novel phases. The cubic intermetallic compound HoInCu$_4$ with all holmium atoms on an fcc lattice, exhibits partial magnetic frustration, yielding a ground state where half of the Ho moments remain without long-range order, as evidenced by our neutron scattering experiments. The substitution of In with Cd results in HoCdCu$_4$ in a full breakdown of magnetic frustration. Consequently we found a fully ordered magnetic structure in our neutron diffraction experiments. These findings are in agreement with the local energy scales and crystal electric field excitations, which we determined from specific heat and inelastic neutron scattering data. The electronic density of states for the itinerant bands acts as tuning parameter for the ratio between nearest-neighbor and next-nearest-neighbor interactions and thus for magnetic frustration.
Highlights
Effects of magnetic frustration on the magnetic properties of compounds are in the focus of current condensed matter research
For J2/J1 0.5 the magnetic structure predicted is the same as we found for HoCdCu4
We presented a detailed determination of the characteristic local energy scales in HoInCu4 and of the magnetic structures of HoInCu4 and HoCdCu4
Summary
Effects of magnetic frustration on the magnetic properties of compounds are in the focus of current condensed matter research. An example of a geometrically frustrated fcc lattice is K2IrCl6 [3,4,5] Another example is the Kitaev model of an fcc lattice [6], featuring for example an unusually large magnon gap caused by quantum order-by-disorder in La2BIrO6 with B = Mg, Zn [7]. In both cases a strong spin-orbit coupling (SOC) is an essential ingredient of the emerging unusual states. We present detailed investigations on the magnetic structure and the thermodynamic properties of HoInCu4, which is partially frustrated and orders antiferromagnetically only below TN = 0.76 K. For J2/J1 0.5 the magnetic structure predicted is the same as we found for HoCdCu4
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