Direct Observation of Orbital Ordering in YTiO₃by Means of the Polarized Neutron Diffraction Technique

The orbital ordering in the ferromagnetic YTiO 3 ( T C ≃30 K) has been observed by means of the polarized neutron diffraction technique. The observed magnetic form factors obtained from the aspherical contribution of the spin density distribution have been satisfactorily explained by the linear combination of the wave functions | z y > and | z x > in terms of the orbital ordering scheme.