High Magnetic Field ESR in S = 1 Skew Chain Antiferromagnet Ni2V2O7 Single Crystal

Abstract

We report electron spin resonance (ESR) in S = 1 skew chain antiferromagnet Ni2V2O7, which exhibits a spin-flop transition and a well-defined 1/2 magnetization plateau. The antiferromagnetic (AFM) ordering at TN = 7 K can be reflected by the temperature-dependent ESR spectra at low frequency for the easy axis. At 2 K, at the spin-flop transition fields along the easy a and b axes, anomalies are observed from the frequency‒field relationship. However, these modes cannot be understood by the conventional two-sublattice AFM resonance theory with uniaxial anisotropy. For the easy b axis, an unusual resonance mode is observed and its resonance field increases with decreasing frequency. This ESR mode becomes softening at ~8 T, corresponding to the onset of the 1/2 magnetization plateau.