Metastable and localized Ising magnetism in alpha-CoV2O6 magnetization plateaus

alpha-CoV2O6 consists of j(eff) = 1/2 Ising to investigate the magnetic periodicity in the vicinity of these plateaus. We find these steps to be characterized by metastable and spatially short-range (xi similar to 10 angstrom) magnetic correlations with antiphase boundaries defining a local periodicity of = up arrow down arrow to = up arrow up arrow down arrow and = up arrow up arrow down arrow down arrow or up arrow up arrow up arrow down arrow spin arrangements. This shows the presence of spatially short range and metastable/hysteretic, commensurate magnetism in Ising magnetization steps.