Multiple field-inducedphase transitions in the geometrically frustrated dipolar magnet: Gd₂Ti₂O₇

Abstract

Field-driven phase transitions generally arise from competition between Zeeman energy and exchange or crystal-field anisotropy. Here we present the phase diagram of a frustrated pyrochlore magnet Gd₂Ti₂O₇, where crystal-field splitting is small compared to the dipolar energy. We find good agreement between zero-temperature critical fields and those obtained from a mean-field model. Here, dipolar interactions couple real space and spin space, so the transitions in Gd₂Ti₂O₇ arise from field-induced "cooperative anisotropy," reflecting the broken spatial symmetries of the pyrochlore lattice.