Communications Materials (Feb 2021)

Piezomagnetic switching and complex phase equilibria in uranium dioxide

  • Daniel J. Antonio,
  • Joel T. Weiss,
  • Katherine S. Shanks,
  • Jacob P. C. Ruff,
  • Marcelo Jaime,
  • Andres Saul,
  • Thomas Swinburne,
  • Myron Salamon,
  • Keshav Shrestha,
  • Barbara Lavina,
  • Daniel Koury,
  • Sol M. Gruner,
  • David A. Andersson,
  • Christopher R. Stanek,
  • Tomasz Durakiewicz,
  • James L. Smith,
  • Zahirul Islam,
  • Krzysztof Gofryk

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s43246-021-00121-6
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 2, no. 1
pp. 1 – 6

Abstract

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UO2 is an antiferromagnetic Mott-Hubbard insulator and exhibits piezomagnetism, though the origin of this is elusive. Here, X-ray diffraction of UO2 in pulsed magnetic fields reveals the presence of time-reversed magnetic domains and structural distortions that take place during the piezomagnetic switching.