In this article, recent advances on polarized and unpolarized neutron diffraction under high pressure condition for frustrated antiferromagnet CuFeO2 were reviewed. I provide two examples including (i) spherical neutron polarimetry analysis experiment under high pressure, and (ii) unpolarized neutron diffraction experiment in the multi-extreme conditions, high pressure, high field and low temperature. It is hoped that these techniques will help the elucidation of novel pressure-induced physical phenomena related to complex magnetic orderings.
Transition-metal intercalated dichalcogenides have attracted attention due to the observation of chiral helimagnetism (CHM) and chiral soliton lattice in CrNb3S6. It forms a chiral monoaxial crystal structure with a space group P6322. To examine the pressure effect on the period of CHM for CrNb3S6, we performed small-angle neutron scattering experiments with a piston-cylinder pressure cell up to 1.2 GPa. We observed a decrease in the magnetic transition temperature with increasing pressure. Moreover, the period of CHM decreased with increasing pressure. Compared to the pressure effect on the lattice constant c along the helical axis, the decrease of the period of CHM is much larger. This indicates that applying pressure weakens the amplitude of Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction.
In this article, characteristics of the clamp-type cubic anvil high pressure cell, developed exclusively for neutron diffraction measurements, are presented. This pressure cell is extremely useful for magnetic studies that require a large volume of single crystal due to weak signal. Using the pressure cell, high pressure neutron diffraction measurements were performed using a single crystal of MnP, which exhibits superconductivity around 8 GPa. We could successfully observe magnetic Bragg peaks from Mn moments with 0.25 Bohr magneton at 7.5 GPa and 3 K.
A diamond anvil cell (DAC) for high-pressure neutron diffraction experiments has been developed at the PLANET beamline, Materials and Life Science Experimental Facility, in J-PARC. The conically supported diamond anvils were used for high-pressure generation. We succeeded in obtaining the neutron data for D2O ice up to 69.4 GPa. In addition, the gasket materials suitable for the neutron diffraction measurements were investigated. 11 kinds of alloys were tested and SUS304, Inconel718 and M2052 (73Mn-20Cu-5Ni-2Fe, at%) alloys showed excellent performance. Especially, M2052 null-matrix alloy has proven to be useful for neutron diffraction experiments where the beam inevitably hits the gasket. We then obtained refinable neutron diffraction profiles in Rietveld analysis from D2O ice at least up to 43.3 GPa.