Study of the Ru sublattice magnetic structure in the magnetic superconductor RuSr2GdCu2O8

Abstract In order to investigate the Ru sublattice magnetic structure, a study of the field dependence of the 99,101Ru nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) has been carried out on the magnetic superconductor RuSr2GdCu2O8. It is found that the 99,101Ru NMR signal intensity increases significantly with applied magnetic field up to ≈3 kOe, beyond which, it progressively decreases. In addition, a shift of the NMR peaks to lower frequency is observed to begin at ≈1.3 kOe. These behaviors are shown to be accompanied by a field-induced Ru moment spin-flop in the ab planes, and are understood in terms of a previously proposed type-I antiferromagnetic ordering for the Ru sublattice. Based on this model, the inter-plane antiferromagnetic exchange coupling is determined to be ≈1.8 kOe along with a reversible in-plane spin-flop which is characterized by a field ≈0.6 kOe.