Observation of hysteresis at the spin-flop transition induced by a pulsed magnetic field

Abstract

We present the results of diffraction research on the spin-flop transition in α-Fe 2O 3 and Cr 2O 3 performed on the SNIM-2 spectrometer of the IBR-2 pulsed reactor using a pulsed magnetic field. The field pulses had a sinusoidal form with a time duration of 400–1000 μs. The hysteresis dependences of the scattering intensity on the field value were obtained. In the case of hematite, with a change in amplitude of the magnetic pulses, the hysteresis loop takes its utmost shape and width, which do not change with further increases in amplitude. The width of the utmost loop is almost one order less than the theoretical range of metastability of the phase states. With decreasing temperature the width of the utmost loop decreases. In the case of Cr 2O 3, hysteresis is observed at magnetic field amplitudes which do not reach the critical value for phase transition. This testifies to a delay of the turning process of sublattice magnetization in the initial phase state.