Possibility of the field-induced spin-nematic phase in LiCuVO₄

We report on the magnetization of the frustrated S=1/2 chain compound LiCuVO₄. In addition to the transition from a planar spiral to a spin modulated structure observed recently by NMR, another transition was observed just below the saturation field. This magnetic phase could be a spin nematic, namely a condensation of two magnon bound states, phase which was predicted theoretically in the S=1/2 linear chain model with the nearest neighbor ferromagnetic and the next nearest neighbor antiferromagnetic exchange interactions. The slope of magnetization in this phase is in good agreement with a calculated one in a realistic quasi 2-dimensional model (M. E. Zhitomirsky and H. Tsunetsugu, Europhys. Lett. 92 37001 (2010)). We compare the observed phase diagram with a numerically calculated one and discuss the possibility of the spin nematic phase.