Melting of chiral order in terbium manganate (TbMnO3) observed with resonant x-ray Bragg diffraction

作者:Lovesey S W*; Scagnoli V; Garganourakis M; Koohpayeh S M; Detlefs C; Staub U
来源:Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter , 2013, 25(36): 362202.
DOI:10.1088/0953-8984/25/36/362202

摘要

Resonant Bragg diffraction of soft, circularly polarized x-rays has been used to observe directly the temperature dependence of chiral-order melting in a motif of Mn ions in terbium manganate. The underlying mechanism uses the b-axis component of a cycloid, which vanishes outside the polar phase. Melting is witnessed by the first and second harmonics of a cycloid, and we explain why the observed temperature dependence differs in the two harmonics. Conclusions follow from an exact treatment of diffraction by using atomic multipoles in a circular cycloid, since a standard treatment of the diffraction, based on a single material-vector identified with the magnetic dipole, does not reproduce correctly observations at the second harmonic.

  • 出版日期2013-9-11