No Arabic abstract
It is well established that long-range magnetic order is suppressed in magnetic systems whose interactions are low-dimensional. The prototypical example is the S-1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnetic chain (S-1/2 HAFC) whose ground state is quantum critical. In real S-1/2 HAFC compounds interchain coupling induces long-range magnetic order although with a suppressed ordered moment and reduced Neel temperature compared to the Curie-Weiss temperature. Recently, it was suggested that order can also be suppressed if the interchain interactions are frustrated, as for the Nersesyan-Tsvelik model. Here, we study the new S-1/2 HAFC, (NO)[Cu(NO3)3]. This material shows extreme suppression of order which furthermore is incommensurate revealing the presence of frustration consistent with the Nersesyan-Tsvelik model.
We present a mixed spin-(1/2, 5/2) chain composed of a charge-transfer salt (4-Br-$o$-MePy-V)FeCl$_4$. We observe the entire magnetization curve up to saturation, which exhibits a clear Lieb-Mattis magnetization plateau and subsequent quantum phase transition towards the gapless Luttinger-liquid phase. The observed magnetic behavior is quantitatively explained by a mixed spin-(1/2, 5/2) chain model. The present results demonstrate a quantum many-body effect based on quantum topology and provide a new stage in the search for topological properties in condensed matter physics.
The stability of the magnetization $m=1/3$ plateau phase of the XXZ spin-1/2 Heisenberg chain with competing interactions is investigated upon switching on a staggered transverse magnetic field. Within a bosonization approach, it is shown that the low-energy properties of the model are described by an effective two-dimensional XY model in a three-fold symmetry-breaking field. A phase transition in the three-state Potts universality class is expected separating the $m=1/3$ plateau phase to a phase where the spins are polarized along the staggered magnetic field. The Z$_3$ critical properties of the transition are determined within the bosonization approach.
The ground-state ordering and dynamics of the two-dimensional (2D) S=1/2 frustrated Heisenberg antiferromagnet Cs_2CuCl_4 is explored using neutron scattering in high magnetic fields. We find that the dynamic correlations show a highly dispersive continuum of excited states, characteristic of the RVB state, arising from pairs of S=1/2 spinons. Quantum renormalization factors for the excitation energies (1.65) and incommensuration (0.56) are large.
At low temperatures, weakly coupled spin chains develop a magnetic order that reflects the character of gapless spin fluctuations along the chains. Using nuclear magnetic resonance, we identify and characterize two ordered states in the gapless region of the antiferromagnetic, Ising-like spin-chain system BaCo2V2O8, both arising from the incommensurate fluctuations along the chains. They correspond to the columnar and ferromagnetic ordered states of the frustrated J1-J2 spin model on a square lattice, where the spins are encoded in original spin chains. As a result of field-dependent incommensurate fluctuations and frustrated interchain interaction, J1 can be tuned continuously with the magnetic field, and its value with respect to a fixed J2 selects the ordered state. Spin-chain systems can thus be used as tunable simulators of frustrated planar magnetism.
In a frustrated J_1-J_2 chain with the nearest-neighbor ferromagnetic interaction J_1 and the next-nearest-neighbor antiferromagnetic interaction J_2, novel magnetic states such as a spin-nematic state are theoretically expected. However, they have been rarely examined in experiments because of the difficulty in obtaining suitable model compounds. We show here that the quasi-one-dimensional antiferromagnet NaCuMoO_4(OH), which comprises edge-sharing CuO_2 chains, is a good candidate J_1-J_2 chain antiferromagnet. The exchange interactions are estimated as J_1 = - 51 K and J_2 = 36 K by comparing the magnetic susceptibility, heat capacity, and magnetization data with the data obtained using calculations by the exact diagonalization method. High-field magnetization measurements at 1.3 K show a saturation above 26 T with little evidence of a spin nematic state expected just below the saturation field, which is probably due to smearing effects caused by thermal fluctuations and the polycrystalline nature of the sample.