In-depth study of the H-T phase diagram of Sr4Ru3O10 by magnetization experiments

Abstract We present magnetization measurements on Sr 4 Ru 3 O 10 as a function of temperature and magnetic field applied perpendicular to the magnetic easy c -axis inside the ferromagnetic phase. Peculiar metamagnetism evolves in Sr 4 Ru 3 O 10  below the ferromagnetic transition T C as a double step in the magnetization at two critical fields H c 1 and H c 2 . We map the H − T phase diagram with special focus on the temperature range 50 K ≤ T ≤ T C . We find that the critical field H c 1 ( T ) connects the field and temperature axes of the phase diagram, whereas the H c 2 boundary starts at 2.8 T for the lowest temperatures and ends in a critical endpoint at (1 T; 80 K). We conclude from the temperature dependence of the ratio Hc 1 Hc 2 ( T ) that the double metamagnetic transition is an intrinsic effect of the material and it is not caused by sample stacking faults such as twinning or partial in-plane rotation between layers.