Order by Disorder and Energetic Selection of the Ground State in the XY Pyrochlore Antiferromagnet Er2Ti2O7. An Inelastic Neutron Scattering Study

Examples of materials where an " order by disorder " mechanism is at play to select a particular ground state are scarce. It has recently been proposed, however, that the antiferromagnetic XY pyrochlore Er 2 Ti 2 O 7 reveals a most convincing case of this mechanism, with the observation of a spin gap at zone centers having recently been interpreted as a corroboration of this physics. Here we argue, however, that the anisotropy generated by the interaction-induced admixing between the crystal-field ground and excited levels provides for an alternative mechanism. It especially predicts the opening of a spin gap of about 15 μeV, which is of the same order of magnitude as the one observed experimentally. We report high-resolution inelastic neutron scattering data which can be well understood within this scenario.