Fig. 2: The magnetostriction in the antiferromagnetic state of UO₂—one field direction.

a A schematic diagram showing the bulk sample magnetostriction along the <111> direction to a magnetic field applied repeatedly to it in the same direction (bold blue line), showing the sample reversibly expanding. A pale blue pattern shows field dependence of the magnetostriction for positive and negative fields directions. b A waterfall plot of fits to the integrated intensity along 2θ of selected fields and at 15 K. The peak at lower 2θ (blue) corresponding to expansion is much larger than the peak at higher 2θ (red). c The peak positions of the two peaks at 15 K, with filled symbols corresponding to rising field and open symbols to falling field. Red circles represent the smaller peak and blue squares the larger one. The blue peak and its positive magnetostriction can be seen to match previous magnetostriction measurements using the fiber Bragg grating technique (black line), with about a 150 p.p.m. expansion at the maximum 21.1 T applied field. The red dash line is guide to the eye.