Field-tuned ferroquadrupolar quantum phase transition in the insulator TmVO₄.

ABSTRACT: We report results of low-temperature heat-capacity, magnetocaloric-effect, and neutron-diffraction measurements of TmVO₄, an insulator that undergoes a continuous ferroquadrupolar phase transition associated with local partially filled 4f orbitals of the thulium (Tm[Formula: see text]) ions. The ferroquadrupolar transition, a realization of Ising nematicity, can be tuned to a quantum critical point by using a magnetic field oriented along the c axis of the tetragonal crystal lattice, which acts as an effective transverse field for the Ising-nematic order. In small magnetic fields, the thermal phase transition can be well described by using a semiclassical mean-field treatment of the transverse-field Ising model. However, in higher magnetic fields, closer to the fie

SUBMITTER: Massat P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9282393 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature