Magnetostriction of a U2Fe13Si4 single crystal

The longitudinal and transverse magnetostriction was measured on a single crystal of U2Fe13Si4 by a capacitor microdilatometer. Anisotropic magnetostriction constants λ1α,2, λ2α,2 and λγ,2 of U2Fe13Si4 are found to be in the range (70–210) × 10−6 at 4.2 K that is high enough to be attributed to the U sublattice. A volume effect observed at the FOMP transition may indicate a field-induced non-collinearity, which involves the exchange magnetostriction to the process in addition to the anisotropic one. The high exchange magnetostriction of U2Fe13Si4 manifests itself in large volume-magnetostriction susceptibility above the technical saturation.