Effects of Uniaxial Stress on Antiferromagnetic Moment in the Heavy Electron Compound URu_2Si_2

Abstract

We have performed the elastic neutron scattering experiments under uniaxial stress σalong the tetragonal [100], [110] and [001] directions for URu2Si2. For σ// [100] and [110], the antiferromagnetic moment μ_o is strongly enhanced from 0.02 μ_B (σ=0) to 0.22 μ_B (σ=2.5 kbar) at 1.5 K. The rate of increase dμ_o/dσis roughly estimated to be ~ 0.1 μ_B/kbar, which is much larger than that for the hydrostatic pressure (~ 0.025 μ_B/kbar). Above 2.5 kbar, μ_o shows a tendency to saturate similar to the behavior in the hydrostatic pressure. For σ// [001], on the other hand, μ_o shows only a slight increase to 0.028 μ_B (σ= 4.6 kbar) with a rate of ~ 0.002 μ_B/kbar. The observed anisotropy suggests that the competition between the hidden order and the antiferromagnetic state in URu2Si2 is strongly coupled with the tetragonal four-fold symmetry and the c/a ratio, or both.