Quadrupolar Waves in Uranium Dioxide
Abstract
In presence of active orbital degrees of freedom, elementary excitations around a broken-symmetry state may include multipolar waves, but none of these exotic dispersive excitation branches has ever been identified. We show that quadrupolar waves constitute a major component of the dynamics of uranium dioxide in its magnetoquadrupolar ordered phase, and that many unexplained features in existing inelastic neutron scattering data, including a whole excitation branch, are associated with these propagating quadrupolar fluctuations. Our model permits us to separate the role of Jahn-Teller and superexchange mechanisms as sources of quadrupolar interactions.
- Publication:
-
Physical Review Letters
- Pub Date:
- October 2010
- DOI:
- 10.1103/PhysRevLett.105.167201
- Bibcode:
- 2010PhRvL.105p7201C
- Keywords:
-
- 75.30.Ds;
- 71.70.Gm;
- 75.25.Dk;
- 75.50.Ee;
- Spin waves;
- Exchange interactions;
- Antiferromagnetics