Gadolinium Iron Garnet as a Solid State Material for an Electron Electric Dipole Moment Search

Abstract

The possibility of a solid state electron electric dipole moment (EDM) experiment based on Gadolinium Iron Garnet (GdIG) is investigated. GdIG appears to exhibit superparamagnetism and this effect can be used to enhance the electric-field-induced EDM signal at relatively a high temperatures, as compared to a simple paramagnetic system such as Gadolinium Gallium Garnet. The sensitivity of a GdIG based experiment might be large enough that an improvement by over three orders of magnitude, compared to the existing electron EDM limit, could be obtained at a modest temperature of 4 K, assuming that the superparamagnetic effect is not suppressed at this temperature, and that the spin relaxation time remains sufficiently rapid.