Absence of a static in-plane magnetic moment in the ‘hidden-order’ phase of URu2Si2

P Das; R E Baumbach; K Huang; M B Maple; Y Zhao; J S Helton; J W Lynn; E D Bauer; M Janoschek

doi:10.1088/1367-2630/15/5/053031

New Journal of Physics (Jan 2013)

Absence of a static in-plane magnetic moment in the ‘hidden-order’ phase of URu2Si2

P Das,
R E Baumbach,
K Huang,
M B Maple,
Y Zhao,
J S Helton,
J W Lynn,
E D Bauer,
M Janoschek

Affiliations

P Das: Condensed Matter and Magnet Science, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545, USA
R E Baumbach: Condensed Matter and Magnet Science, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545, USA
K Huang: Department of Physics, University of California , San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA
M B Maple: Department of Physics, University of California , San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA
Y Zhao: NIST Center for Neutron Research, National Institute of Standards and Technology , Gaithersburg, MD 20899, USA; Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Maryland , College Park, MD 20742, USA
J S Helton: NIST Center for Neutron Research, National Institute of Standards and Technology , Gaithersburg, MD 20899, USA
J W Lynn: NIST Center for Neutron Research, National Institute of Standards and Technology , Gaithersburg, MD 20899, USA
E D Bauer: Condensed Matter and Magnet Science, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545, USA
M Janoschek: Condensed Matter and Magnet Science, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545, USA; Department of Physics, University of California , San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/15/5/053031
Journal volume & issue: Vol. 15, no. 5
p. 053031

Abstract

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We have carried out a careful magnetic neutron scattering study of the heavy fermion compound URu _2 Si _2 to probe the possible existence of a small magnetic moment parallel to tetragonal basal plane in the ‘hidden-order’ phase. This small in-plane component of the magnetic moment on the uranium sites S _∥ has been postulated by two recent models (rank-5 superspin/hastatic order) aiming to explain the hidden-order phase, in addition to the well-known out-of-plane component S _⊥ ≈ 0.01–0.04 μ _B /U. In order to separate S _∥ and S _⊥ , we take advantage of the condition that for magnetic neutron scattering only the components of the magnetic structure that are perpendicular to the scattering vector Q contribute to the magnetic scattering. We find no evidence for an in-plane magnetic moment S _∥ . Based on the statistics of our measurement, we establish that the upper experimental limit for the size of any possible in-plane component is S ^max _∥ ⩽ 1 × 10 ^−3 μ _B /U.

Published in New Journal of Physics

ISSN: 1367-2630 (Online)
Publisher: IOP Publishing
Country of publisher: United Kingdom
LCC subjects: Science: Physics
Website: https://iopscience.iop.org/journal/1367-2630

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