Magnetic phase diagram of the antiferromagnetic pyrochlore Gd2Ti2O7 -: art. no. 012402

Gd2Ti2O7 is a highly frustrated antiferromagnet on a pyrochlore lattice, where apart from the Heisenberg exchange the spins also interact via dipole-dipole forces. We report on low-temperature specific heat measurements performed on single crystals of Gd2Ti2O7 for three different directions of an applied magnetic field. The measurements reveal the strongly anisotropic behavior of Gd2Ti2O7 in a magnetic field despite the apparent absence of a significant single-ion anisotropy for Gd3+. The H-T phase diagrams are constructed for Hparallel to[111], Hparallel to[110], and Hparallel to[112]. The results indicate that further theoretical work beyond a simple mean-field model is required.