Noncollinear magnetic structure in U2Pd2In at high magnetic fields

We report an unexpected magnetic-field-driven magnetic structure in the 5f-electron Shastry-Sutherland system U2Pd2In. This phase develops at low temperatures from a noncollinear antiferromagnetic ground state above the critical field of 25.8 T applied along the a axis. All U moments have a net magnetic moment in the direction of the applied field, described by a ferromagnetic propagation vector qF=(000) and an antiferromagnetic component described by a propagation vector qAF=(0 0.3012) due to a modulation in the direction perpendicular to the applied field. We conclude that this surprising noncollinear magnetic structure is due to a competition between the single-ion anisotropy trying to keep moments, similar to the ground state, along the [110]-type directions, Dzyaloshinskii-Moryia interaction forcing them to be perpendicular to each other and application of the external magnetic field attempting to align them along the field direction.