Metastable and localized Ising magnetism in α- CoV2 O6 magnetization plateaus

Abstract

α-CoV2O6 consists of jeff=12 Ising spins located on an anisotropic triangular motif with magnetization plateaus in an applied field. We combine neutron diffraction with low temperature magnetization to investigate the magnetic periodicity in the vicinity of these plateaus. We find these steps to be characterized by metastable and spatially short-range (ζ∼10 Å) magnetic correlations with antiphase boundaries defining a local periodicity of (T2)=↑↓ to (T3)=↑↑↓ and (T4)=↑↑↓↓ or ↑↑↑↓ spin arrangements. This shows the presence of spatially short range and metastable/hysteretic, commensurate magnetism in Ising magnetization steps.