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Ising Supercriticality and Universal Magnetocalorics in Spiral Antiferromagnet
Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 246502 – Published 17 June, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/nqcw-pz8v
Abstract
The celebrated analogy between the pressure-temperature phase diagram of a liquid-gas system and the field-temperature phase diagram of a ferromagnet has long been a cornerstone for understanding universality of phase transitions and critical phenomena. Here we extend this analogy to a highly frustrated antiferromagnet, the spiral Ising compound with kagome layers. In its phase diagram, we identify a metamagnetic transition line with a critical endpoint (CEP) located at and . Above the CEP, an Ising supercritical regime emerges with crossover lines that follow a universal scaling law, as evidenced by the specific heat, magnetic susceptibility, and magnetocaloric measurements. Remarkably, we observe critically enhanced magnetic cooling near the emergent CEP, characterized by a divergent magnetic Grüneisen ratio , with the sum of critical exponents of the 3D Ising universality class and the reduced temperature. Adiabatic demagnetization from 2 K and 4 T reaches a minimum temperature of 195 mK, via a self-cascading process that combines supercritical and topological cooling. Our findings open a new avenue for studying supercritical phenomena and magnetic refrigeration with the frustrated rare-earth compounds and, more broadly, in Ising-anisotropic antiferromagnets such as spin ices.