Ferromagnetic Ising Spin Chains Emerging from the Spin Ice under Magnetic Field

Abstract

A spin-ice compound dysprosium titanate, Dy2Ti2O7, is studied by specific heat measurements in magnetic fields applied along the [110] direction of the cubic unit cell. Above a magnetic field of 0.4 T a relatively sharp peak at T = 1.1 K in the specific heat appears from a broad peak associated with spin-ice freezing at low fields. This new peak is almost independent of field up to 1.5 T, while another broad, field-dependent peak is detected at higher temperature. Under magnetic field along [110] Ising spins on the pyrochlore lattice can be considered to form two orthogonal sets of chains; parallel and perpendicular to the field direction. It is suggested that these perpendicular chains behave as unique ferromagnetic Ising spin chains without long-range order.