Low-temperature metamagnetic states in single crystal TbNi2B2C studied by torque magnetometry

Abstract

Metamagnetic transitions in single crystal TbNi2B2C have been studied at 1.9 K with a Quantum Design torque magnetometer. The critical fields for the transitions depend strongly on the angle between the applied field and the easy axis [100]. Torque measurements have been made while changing the angular direction of the magnetic field (parallel to basal tetragonal ab-planes) at fixed field magnitude and while changing the field magnitude at fixed angular direction over a wide angular range (more than two quadrants). Torque magnetometry (sensitive only to the component of magnetization perpendicular to the field) indicates not only a different sequence of metamagnetic phases for fields near the easy axis from those near the hard axis, but also the different natures of a principal metamagnetic phase near the hard axis. Comparison of the results with longitudinal magnetization measurements is presented.