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Interdependence of magnetism and superconductivity in the borocarbide TmNi2B2C

K. Noergaard, M. R. Eskildsen, N. H. Andersen, J. Jensen, P. Hedegaard, S. N. Klausen, P. C. Canfield

cond-matarXiv:cond-mat/9912299

Abstract

We have discovered a new antiferromagnetic phase in TmNi2B2C by neutron diffraction. The ordering vector is QA = (0.48,0,0) and the phase appears above a critical in-plane magnetic field of 0.9 T. The field was applied in order to test the assumption that the zero-field magnetic structure at QF = (0.094,0.094,0) would change into a c-axis ferromagnet if superconductivity were destroyed. We present theoretical calculations which show that two effects are important: A suppression of the ferromagnetic component of the RKKY exchange interaction in the superconducting phase, and a reduction of the superconducting condensation energy due to the periodic modulation of the moments at the wave vector QA.

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