PACS titles: Spin arrangements in magnetically ordered materials, Exchange and superexchange interactions, Magnetic phase boundaries including meta-magnetism.
AbstractWe have carried out high magnetic field studies of single-crystalline Li 2 MnO 3 , a honeycomb lattice antiferromagnet. Its magnetic phase diagram was mapped out using magnetization measurements at applied fields up to 35 T. Our results show that it undergoes two successive meta-magnetic transitions around 9 T fields applied perpendicular to the ab-plane (along the c*-axis). These phase transitions are completely absent in the magnetization measured with field applied along the ab-plane. In order to understand this magnetic phase diagram, we developed a mean-field model starting from the correct Néel-type magnetic structure, consistent with our single crystal neutron diffraction data at zero field. Our model calculations succeeded in explaining the two meta-magnetic transitions that arise when Li 2 MnO 3 enters two different spinflop phases from the zero field Néel phase.