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Abstract:
Polarized and unpolarized neutron scattering experiments on the frustrated ferromagnetic spin-1/2 chain LiCuVO4 show that the phase transition at H-Q of 8 T is driven by quadrupolar fluctuations and that dipolar correlations are short range with moments parallel to the applied magnetic field in the high-field phase. Heat-capacity measurements evidence a phase transition into this high-field phase, with an anomaly clearly different from that at low magnetic fields. Our experimental data are consistent with a picture where the ground state above H-Q has a next-nearest neighbor bond-nematic order along the chains with a fluidlike coherence between weakly coupled chains.
