Magnetization measurements of ${\mathrm{LaCoO}}_3$ have been carried out up to 133 T, generated with a destructive pulse magnet at a wide temperature range from 2 to 120 K. A novel magnetic transition was found at $B>100$ T and $T>T^{*}=32\pm 5$ K, which is characterized by its transition field increasing with increasing temperature. At $T<T^{*}$, the previously reported transition at $B\sim 65$ T was observed. Based on the obtained $B\text{−}T$ phase diagram and the Clausius-Clapeyron relation, the entropy of the high-field phase at 80 K is found to be smaller for about $1.5$ J ${\mathrm{K}}^{-1}{\mathrm{mol}}^{-1}$ than that of the low-field phase. We suggest that the observed two high-field phases may originate in different spatial orders of the spin states and possibly other degrees of freedom such as orbitals. An inherent strong correlation of spin states among cobalt sites should have triggered the emergence of the ordered phases in ${\mathrm{LaCoO}}_3$ at high magnetic fields.

The centrosymmetric tetragonal itinerant magnet ${\mathrm{EuAl}}_4$ exhibits an intricate magnetic phase diagram including rhombic and square skyrmion-lattice (SkL) phases in the external magnetic field. Here, we report a multi-axis dilatometric investigation of ${\mathrm{EuAl}}_4$ by means of a newly designed fiber-Bragg-grating technique complemented by a resonant x-ray scattering experiment, revealing anisotropic magnetostriction and magnetovolume effect associated with successive phase transitions. The rhombic and square SkL phases are found to possess $\sim 0.10$% and $\sim 0.03$% orthorhombic structural distortion within the $ab$ plane, respectively. We propose that the coupling between the spin system and the lattice deformation should be essential for the structural instability in ${\mathrm{EuAl}}_4$, yielding a rich variety of topological spin textures with spontaneous rotational-symmetry breaking as well as a potential controllability of the SkL phases by uniaxial stress or pressure.

Under magnetic fields, quantum magnets often undergo exotic phase transitions with various kinds of order. The discovery of a sequence of fractional magnetization plateaus in the Shastry-Sutherland compound SrCu₂(BO₃)₂ has played a central role in the high-field research on quantum materials, but so far this system could only be probed up to half the saturation value of the magnetization. Here, we report the first experimental and theoretical investigation of this compound up to the saturation magnetic field of 140 T and beyond. Using ultrasound and magnetostriction techniques combined with extensive tensor-network calculations (iPEPS), several spin-supersolid phases are revealed between the 1/2 plateau and saturation (1/1 plateau). Quite remarkably, the sound velocity of the 1/2 plateau exhibits a drastic decrease of -50%, related to the tetragonal-to-orthorhombic instability of the checkerboard-type magnon crystal. The unveiled nature of this paradigmatic quantum system is a new milestone for exploring exotic quantum states of matter emerging in extreme conditions.

We report a magnetostriction study of a perovskite ${\text{LaCoO}}_3$ above 100 T using our state-of-the-art strain gauge to investigate an interplay between electron correlation and spin crossover. There has been a controversy regarding whether two novel phases in ${\text{LaCoO}}_3$ at high magnetic fields result from crystallizations or Bose-Einstein condensation during spin crossover as manifestations of localization and delocalization in spin states, respectively. We show that both phases are crystallizations rather than condensations, and the two crystallizations are different, based on the observations that the two phases exhibit as magnetostriction plateaux with distinct heights. The crystallizations of spin states have emerged manifesting the localizations and interactions in spin crossover with large and cooperative lattice changes.

Bose-Einstein condensation of electron-hole pairs, exciton condensation, has been effortfully investigated since predicted 60 years ago. Irrefutable evidence has still been lacking due to experimental difficulties in verifying the condensation of the charge neutral and non-magnetic spin-singlet excitons. Whilst, condensation of spin-triplet excitons is a promising frontier because spin supercurrent and spin-Seebeck effects will be observable. A canonical cobaltite LaCoO₃ under very high magnetic fields is a propitious candidate, yet to be verified. Here, we unveil the exotic phase diagram of LaCoO₃ up to 600 T generated using the electromagnetic flux compression method and the state-of-the-art magnetostriction gauge. We found the continuous magnetostriction curves and a bending structure, which suggest the emergence of two distinct spin-triplet exciton condensates. By constructing a phenomenological model, we showed that quantum fluctuations of excitons are crucial for the field-induced successive transitions. The spin-triplet exciton condensation in a cobaltite, which is three-dimensional and thermally equilibrated, opens up a novel venue for spintronics technologies with spin-supercurrent such as a spin Josephson junction.

The magnetization process of the Kondo insulator YbB12 has been unveiled in ultrahigh magnetic fields of up to 120 T at 4.2 K. We have found a novel metamagnetic transition at Bc2 = 102 T in addition to the previously known transition at Bc1 = 55 T. It has also been observed that the magnetization tends to saturate at around 112 T. Within the rigid band model, the two-energy-gap structure in the density of states (DOS) explains the successive two-step metamagnetism as a result of the Zeeman effect of the DOS. The metamagnetic transition at Bc1 occurs along with an insulator–metal transition and the field-induced phase is expected to be a heavy fermion metallic state. The Kondo effect can weaken at the second transition of Bc2, as theoretically found in the successive two-metamagnetic-transition process in the Kondo semimetal CeNiSn.