Observation of additional magnetic modulation vectors in the element Neodymium*

The rare earth element neodymium exhibits a series of complex magnetic phases as a function of temperature and applied magnetic fields. Neodymium crystallizes in a double hexagonal closed packed structure consisting of triangular nets of Nd stacked along the c-axis. Here we report the observation of a new set of magnetic modulation vectors through small angle neutron scattering (SANS) and single-crystal neutron diffraction measurements. While we find distinct modulations occur in different phases, this talk focuses on the modulations occurring for 5.9(1) ≤ T ≤ 7.6(1) K and µ₀H ≤ 1.0(1) T for fields applied along the c-axis. Within this phase, the modulation vectors are found to occur at 0.06 a* implying a characteristic length scale of ~52 Å. We discuss the possibility that these additional modulation vectors indicate the presence of frustration driven spin texture in the element Nd.