No Arabic abstract
Recently, oxide multiferroics have attracted much attention due to their large magnetoelectric effect which allows the tuning of magnetic properties with electric field and vice versa and open new venues for future spintronic applications such as multiple-state memory devices with dual magnetic and electric control. BiFeO$_3$ (BFO) belongs to this new class of materials and shows both ferroelectric and antiferromagnetic orders at room temperature with a large electric polarizationassociated with a cycloidal spiral magnetic ordering. The incommensurate magnetic order induces magnon zone folding and allows investigations by optical probes of unusual spin waves which couples to optical phonons, the so called `electromagnons. Here, we unravel for the first time the electromagnon spectra of BFO by means low energy inelastic light scattering technique. We show the existence of two species of electromagnons corresponding to spin wave excitations in and out of the cycloidal plane. The present observations present an unique opportunity to study the interplay between ferroelectric and magnetic orders.
The origin of electromagnon excitations in cycloidal textit{R}MnO$_3$ is explained in terms of the Heisenberg coupling between spins despite the fact that the static polarization arises from the much weaker Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya (DM) exchange interaction. We present a model that incorporates structural characteristics of this family of manganites that is confirmed by far infrared transmission data as a function of temperature and magnetic field and inelastic neutron scattering results. A deep connection is found between the magnetoelectric dynamics of the spiral phase and the static magnetoelectric coupling in the collinear E-phase of this family of manganites.
We calculate spectra of magnetic excitations in the spin-spiral state of perovskite manganates. The spectra consist of several branches corresponding to different polarizations and different ways of diffraction from the static magnetic order. Goldstone modes and opening of gaps at zero and non-zero energies due to the crystal field and the Dzyaloshinski-Moriya anisotropies are discussed. Comparing results of the calculation with available experimental data we determine values of effective exchange parameters and anisotropies. To simplify the spin-wave calculation and to get a more clear physical insight in the structure of excitations we use the {sigma}-model-like effective field theory to analyze the Heisenberg Hamiltonian and to derive the spectra.
$^7$Li nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and terahertz (THz) spectroscopies are used to probe magnetic excitations and their field dependence in the hyperhoneycomb Kitaev magnet $beta$-Li$_2$IrO$_3$. Spin-lattice relaxation rate ($1/T_1$) measured down to 100,mK indicates gapless nature of the excitations at low fields (below $H_csimeq 2.8$,T), in contrast to the gapped magnon excitations found in the honeycomb Kitaev magnet $alpha$-RuCl$_3$ at zero applied magnetic field. At higher temperatures in $beta$-Li$_2$IrO$_3$, $1/T_1$ passes through a broad maximum without any clear anomaly at the Neel temperature $T_Nsimeq 38$,K, suggesting the abundance of low-energy excitations that are indeed observed as two peaks in the THz spectra, both correspond to zone-center magnon excitations. At higher fields (above $H_c$), an excitation gap opens, and a re-distribution of the THz spectral weight is observed without any indication of an excitation continuum, in contrast to $alpha$-RuCl$_3$ where an excitation continuum was reported.
We report on magnetization $M(H)$, dc/ac magnetic susceptibility $chi(T)$, specific heat $C_{mathrm{m}}(T)$ and muon spin relaxation ($mu$SR) measurements of the Kitaev honeycomb iridate Cu$_2$IrO$_2$ with quenched disorder. In spite of the chemical disorders, we find no indication of spin glass down to 260~mK from the $C_{mathrm{m}}(T)$ and $mu$SR data. Furthermore, a persistent spin dynamics observed by the zero-field muon spin relaxation evidences an absence of static magnetism. The remarkable observation is a scaling relation of $chi[H,T]$ and $M[H,T]$ in $H/T$ with the scaling exponent $alpha=0.26-0.28$, expected from bond randomness. However, $C_{mathrm{m}}[H,T]/T$ disobeys the predicted universal scaling law, pointing towards the presence of low-lying excitations in addition to random singlets. Our results signify an intriguing role of quenched disorder in a Kitaev spin system in creating low-energy excitations possibly pertaining to Z$_2$ fluxes.
Mott insulators with strong spin-orbit coupling have been proposed to host unconventional magnetic states, including the Kitaev quantum spin liquid. The 4$d$ system $alpha$-RuCl$_3$ has recently come into view as a candidate Kitaev system, with evidence for unusual spin excitations in magnetic scattering experiments. We apply a combination of optical spectroscopy and Raman scattering to study the electronic structure of this material. Our measurements reveal a series of orbital excitations involving localized total angular momentum states of the Ru ion, implying that strong spin-orbit coupling and electron-electron interactions coexist in this material. Analysis of these features allows us to estimate the spin-orbit coupling strength, as well as other parameters describing the local electronic structure, revealing a well-defined hierarchy of energy scales within the Ru $d$ states. By comparing our experimental results with density functional theory calculations, we also clarify the overall features of the optical response. Our results demonstrate that $alpha$-RuCl$_3$ is an ideal material system to study spin-orbit coupled magnetism on the honeycomb lattice.