Local distortion driven magnetic phase switching in pyrochlore Yb2(Ti1-xSnx)2 O7

While it is commonly accepted that the disorder induced by magnetic ion doping in quantum magnets usually generates a rugged free-energy landscape resulting in slow or glassy spin dynamics, the disorder/distortion effects associated with nonmagnetic ion sites doping are still illusive. Here, using AC susceptibility measurements, we show that the mixture of Sn/Ti on the nonmagnetic ion sites of pyrochlore Yb2(Ti1-xSnx)2O7 induces an antiferromagnetic ground state despite both parent compounds, Yb2Ti2O7 and Yb2Sn2O7, order ferromagnetically. Local structure studies through neutron total scattering reveals the local distortion in the nonmagnetic ion sites and its strong correlation with the magnetic phase switching. Our study demonstrates the local distortion as induced by the nonmagnetic ion site mixture could be a new path to achieve magnetic phase switching, which has been traditionally obtained by external stimuli such as temperature, magnetic field, pressure, strain, light, etc.