Bose-Einstein condensation of S = 1 nickel spin degrees of freedom in NiCl2-4SC(NH2)2.

It has recently been suggested that the organic compound NiCl2-4SC(NH2)2 (DTN) undergoes field-induced Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) of the Ni spin degrees of freedom. The Ni S = 1 spins exhibit three-dimensional XY antiferromagnetism above a critical field H(c1) approximately 2 T. The spin fluid can be described as a gas of hard-core bosons where the field-induced antiferromagnetic transition corresponds to Bose-Einstein condensation. We have determined the spin Hamiltonian of DTN using inelastic neutron diffraction measurements, and we have studied the high-field phase diagram by means of specific heat and magnetocaloric effect measurements. Our results show that the field-temperature phase boundary approaches a power-law H - H(c1) proportional variant T(alpha)(c) near the quantum critical point, with an exponent that is consistent with the 3D BEC universal value of alpha = 1.5.