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Spontaneous strain due to ferroquadrupolar ordering in UCu$_2$Sn

Isao Ishii·Haruhiro Higaki·Kenichi Katoh·Toshiro Takabatake·Hiroshi Goshima·Toshizo Fujita·Takashi Suzuki
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Abstract

The ternary uranium compound UCu$_2$Sn with a hexagonal ZrPt$_2$Al-type structure shows a phase transition at 16 K. We reported previously that huge lattice-softening is accompanied by the phase transition, which originates from ferroquadrupolar ordering of the ground state non-Kramers doublet $Γ_5$. A macroscopic strain, which is expected to emerge spontaneously, was not detected by powder X-ray diffraction in the temperature range between 4.2 and 300 K. To search the spontaneous strain, we have carried out thermal expansion measurements on a single-crystalline sample along the $a$, $b$ and $c$ axes using a capacitance technique with the resolution of $10^{-8}$. In the present experiment, we found the spontaneous $e_{xx} - e_{yy}$ strain which couples to the ground state doublet $Γ_5$. The effect of uniaxial pressure along the $a$, $b$ and $c$ axes on the transition temperature is also discussed.

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Isao Ishii, Haruhiro Higaki, Kenichi Katoh, Toshiro Takabatake, Hiroshi Goshima, Toshizo Fujita, Takashi Suzuki. 2003-06-24. Spontaneous strain due to ferroquadrupolar ordering in UCu$_2$Sn. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevb.68.144413

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