Research performed in part on our WOMBAT high-intensity powder diffractometer, using our 12-T magnet, has just appeared in the prestigious journal Physical Review Letters. The research is a collaboration with a number of institutes in Germany, along with the Institut Laue-Langevin in Grenoble and ANSTO. It features crystals of the natural mineral linarite, a copper lead sulfate hydroxide, which appears to be the most promising candidate for the theoretically predicted, but elusive, spin-nematic phase.
With applied magnetic fields and low temperatures we can explore linarite's complex magnetic phases. This spin nematic phase is the magnetic equivalent of the dynamic alignment that occurs in liquid-crystal displays, as used in modern televisions and computers. It is predicted to occur in low-dimensional quantum magnet systems like linarite.
The full reference is B. Willenberg, M. Schäpers, A. U. B. Wolter, S.-L. Drechsler, M. Reehuis, J.-U. Hoffmann, B. Büchner, A. J. Studer, K. C. Rule, B. Ouladdiaf, S. Süllow and S. Nishimoto, "Complex Field-Induced States in Linarite PbCuSO4(OH)2 with a Variety of High-Order Exotic Spin-Density Wave States", Phys. Rev. Lett.116, (2016).