H-T Magnetic Phase Diagram of a Frustrated Triangular Lattice Antiferromagnet CuFeO_{<b> 2</b>}

Abstract

By magnetization and specific heat measurements in an applied magnetic field up to 12 T, we obtained the magnetic field ( H ) versus temperature ( T ) phase diagram of a frustrated triangular lattice antiferromagnet (TLA), CuFeO 2 , where a partially disordered phase typical to Ising TLA exists as a thermally induced state for the 4-sublattice ground state as well as for the first-field-induced 5-sublattice-like state. The experimentally obtained H - T magnetic phase diagram is compared with that from Monte-Carlo simulation of a 2D Ising TLA model with competing exchange interactions up to 3rd neighbors.