Model-free polarized neutron diffraction study of an acentric crystal: Metamagnetic UCoAl

Abstract

For the first time, a model-free procedure is developed to analyze polarized neutron diffraction data pertaining to acentric crystals. It consists of a two-step process, featuring first an effective flipping ratio and second a linear inverse problem. The latter is solved either by a new generalized inverse Fourier transform or by using maximum entropy. Using metamagnetic UCoAl as a test case, we find the following results: (i) the U and Co(2) moments increase with an applied magnetic field whereas the Co(1) moment remains almost constant, (ii) the U and Co(2) magnetic densities are weakly anisotropic.