Hysteresis in the de Haas–van Alphen effect

We present the experimental observation of hysteresis in high quality single crystals with different sample shapes of the simple metal beryllium. The hysteresis itself turns out to be very small. Here, Hall probe measurements at very low modulation frequency prove that the hysteresis is not due to eddy current effects. Furthermore, the hysteresis effect is measured using a standard AC method with various modulation levels and frequencies, and for samples with different demagnetization factors. We demonstrate that previously in rod-like samples observed effect is also present in a plate-like sample. The irreversible behavior of the magnetization occurs at the paramagnetic part of the de Haas–van Alphen (dHvA) period in case of Condon domain formation arising if the dHvA amplitude is strong enough. Moreover, we show that the resulting, extremely nonlinear response to a very small modulation field offers a simple way to find the Condon domain phase diagram.