Metamagnetism and tricriticalilty in the heavy-fermion ferromagnet URhGe
URhGe is a ferromagnetic superconductor with a distinctive magnetic behavior. In a field $H\ensuremath{\parallel}b$ applied perpendicular to the easy axis, URhGe exhibits an abrupt orientational transition of the magnetization with a reentrant superconducting phase emerging close to the transition field ${H}_{m}$. We develop a theoretical description of the magnetic properties of URhGe by considering a spin model with competing magnetic anisotropies. The model is analyzed both analytically at zero temperature and with Monte Carlo simulations at finite temperatures. The constructed ${H}_{b}$--$T$ phase diagram features a tricritical point on the line ${H}_{m}(T)$ and is in a good quantitative agreement with the experimental diagram of URhGe. We demonstrate that the asymptotic tricritical behavior of the order parameter and the correlation length is described by the mean-field critical exponents. The derived microscopic parameters suggest that URhGe is an $XY$-like ferromagnet with an additional weak in-plane anisotropy in the $bc$ plane.
Authors
- M. E. Zhitomirsky (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1143-2904)
- A. S. Gubina
Institutions
- Institut Laue-Langevin (FR)
- Institut des langues et cultures d'Europe, Amérique, Afrique, Asie et Australie (FR)
- Université Grenoble Alpes (FR)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Physical review. B./Physical review. B
- Published
- 2024-10-31
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevb.110.155159
- Primary Topic
- Rare-earth and actinide compounds
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- Agence Nationale de la Recherche