The square-lattice quantum Heisenberg antiferromagnet displays a pronounced anomaly of unknown origin in its magnetic excitation spectrum. The anomaly manifests itself only for short wavelength excitations propagating along the direction connecting nearest neighbors. Using polarized neutron spectroscopy, we have fully characterized the magnetic fluctuations in the model metal-organic compound CFTD, revealing an isotropic continuum at the anomaly indicative of fractional excitations. A theoretical framework based on the Gutzwiller projection method is developed to explain the origin of the continuum at the anomaly. This indicates that the anomaly arises from deconfined fractional spin-1/2 quasiparticle pairs, the 2D analog of 1D spinons. Away from the anomaly the conventional spin-wave spectrum is recovered as pairs of fractional quasiparticles bind to form spin-1 magnons. Our results therefore establish the existence of fractional quasiparticles in the simplest model two dimensional antiferromagnet even in the absence of frustration.
Iron pnictides and selenides display a variety of unusual magnetic phases originating from the interplay between electronic, orbital, and lattice degrees of freedom. Using powder inelastic neutron scattering on the two-leg ladder BaFe2Se3, we fully characterize the static and dynamic spin correlations associated with the Fe4 block state, an exotic magnetic ground state observed in this low-dimensional magnet and in Rb0.89Fe1.58Se2. All the magnetic excitations of the Fe4 block state predicted by an effective Heisenberg model with localized spins are observed below 300 meV and quantitatively reproduced. However, the data only account for 16 mub^2 per Fe2+, approximatively 2/3 of the total spectral weight expected for localized S=2 moments. Our results highlight how orbital degrees of freedom in iron-based magnets can conspire to stabilize an exotic magnetic state.
Inelastic neutron scattering for temperatures below 30 K from a powder of LiZn2Mo3O8 demonstrates this triangular-lattice antiferromagnet hosts collective magnetic excitations from spin 1/2 Mo3O13 molecules. Apparently gapless (Delta < 0.2 meV) and extending at least up to 2.5 meV, the low energy magnetic scattering cross section is surprisingly broad in momentum space and involves one third of the spins present above 100 K. The data are compatible with the presence of valence-bonds involving nearest-neighbor and next-nearest-neighbor spins forming a disordered or dynamic state.
We study high-field magnon dynamics and examine the dynamical structure factor in the quasi-2D tetragonal Heisenberg antiferromagnet with interlayer coupling corresponding to realistic materials. Within spin-wave theory, we show that a non-zero interlayer coupling mitigates singular corrections to the excitation spectrum occurring in the high-field regime that would otherwise require a self-consistent approach beyond the 1/S approximation. For the fields between the threshold for decays and saturation field we observe widening of the two-magnon sidebands with significant shifting of the spectral weight away from the quasiparticle peak. We find spectrum broadening throughout large regions of the Brillouin zone, dramatic redistributions of spectral weight to the two-magnon continuum, two-peak structures and other features clearly unlike conventional single-particle peaks.
A quantum magnet, LiCuSbO4, with chains of edge-sharing S = 1/2 CuO6 octahedra is reported. While the Curie-Weiss constant is ferromagnetic, theta = 30 K, no phase transition or spin freezing occurs down to 100 mK. Specific heat indicates a distinct high field phase near the 12 T saturation field. Neutron scattering shows incommensurate spin correlations with q = 0.47pm0.01{pi}/a and places an upper limit of 70 mueV on a potential spin gap. Exact diagonalization of easy plane S = 1/2 chains with competing ferro- and antiferromagnetic interactions (J1 = - 75 K, J2 = 34 K) accounts for the T > 2 K data.
Using low-energy projection of the one-band t-t-t-Hubbard model we derive an effective spin-Hamiltonian and its spin-wave expansion to order 1/S. We fit the spin-wave dispersion of several parent compounds to the high-temperature superconducting cuprates: La2CuO4, Sr2CuO2Cl2 and Bi2Sr2YCu2O8. Our accurate quantitative determination of the one-band Hubbard model parameters allows prediction and comparison to experimental results of measurable quantities such as staggered moment, double occupancy density, spin-wave velocity and bimagnon excitation spectrum and density of states, which is discussed in relation to K-edge RIXS and Raman experiments.
