Temperature Dependence of Diffuse Scattering in the New Pyrochlore Magnet Ce2Hf2O7

Magnetic materials displaying quantum spin liquid (QSL) ground states are of great topical interest due to the exotic nature of their excitations and emergent properties at low temperatures. Ce2Zr2O7 and Ce2Sn2O7 are cubic pyrochlore QSL candidates that have attracted much recent attention, offering the possibility for novel QSL phases at low temperature due to the “dipolar octupolar” (DO) character of the Ce3+ pseudospins. Here we are proposing to probe the magnetic correlations from a powder sample of Ce2Hf2O7, a sister Ce3+-based pyrochlore magnet to those expressed in the dipolar-octupolar QSL candidates Ce2Zr2O7 and Ce2Sn2O7. The proposed experiment will have sensitivity to both dipolar and octupolar correlations, which will be crucial in developing an understanding of Ce2Hf2O7’s magnetic ground state.