- Editors' Suggestion
NMR Evidence for Spontaneous Electronic Chiral Order in URhSn
Phys. Rev. Lett. 137, 046501 – Published 20 July, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/1vjx-4jfv
Abstract
URhSn exhibits successive phase transitions at and . While the transition at is known to be ferromagnetic, the nature of the intermediate phase between and has remained elusive. Here, we report nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) measurements on high-quality single crystals of URhSn, which reveal NMR line splittings indicative of symmetry breaking in the intermediate phase. The field-direction and site dependences of these splittings are consistent with antiferroquadrupolar ordering characterized by the space group (No. 150). This finding confirms the emergence of a novel form of chiral order driven by electronic degrees of freedom, without an underlying chiral crystal structure in URhSn.