No Arabic abstract
Powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) and single-crystal neutron scattering were used to study in detail the structural properties of the Cs2CuCl(4-x)Br(x) series, good realizations of layered triangular antiferromagnets. Detailed temperature-dependent PXRD reveal a pronounced anisotropy of the thermal expansion for the three different crystal directions of the orthorhombic structure without any structural phase transition down to 20 K. Remarkably, the anisotropy of the thermal expansion varies for different $x$, leading to distinct changes of the geometry of the local Cu environment as a function of temperature and composition. The refinement of the atomic positions confirms that for x=1 and 2, the Br atoms occupy distinct halogen sites in the [CuX4]-tetrahedra (X = Cl, Br). The precise structure data are used to calculate the magnetic exchange couplings using density functional methods for x=0. We observe a pronounced temperature dependence of the calculated magnetic exchange couplings, reflected in the strong sensitivity of the magnetic exchange couplings on structural details. These calculations are in good agreement with the experimentally established values for Cs2CuCl4 if one takes the low-temperature structure data as a starting point.
We present a study of the magnetic susceptibility $chi_{mol}$ under variable hydrostatic pressure on single crystals of Cs$_2$CuCl$_{4-x}$Br$_x$. This includes the border compounds textit{x} = 0 and 4, known as good realizations of the distorted triangular-lattice spin-1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnet, as well as the isostructural stoichiometric systems Cs$_2$CuCl$_{3}$Br$_1$ and Cs$_2$CuCl$_{2}$Br$_2$. For the determination of the exchange coupling constants $J$ and $J^{prime}$, $chi_{mol}$ data were fitted by a $J-J^{prime}$ model cite{Schmidt2015}. Its application, validated for the border compounds, yields a degree of frustration $J^{prime}$/$J$ = 0.47 for Cs$_2$CuCl$_3$Br$_1$ and $J^{prime}$/$J$ $simeq$ 0.63 - 0.78 for Cs$_2$CuCl$_2$Br$_2$, making these systems particular interesting representatives of this family. From the evolution of the magnetic susceptibility under pressure up to about 0.4,GPa, the maximum pressure applied, two observations were made for all the compounds investigated here. First, we find that the overall energy scale, given by $J_c = (J^2$ + $J^{prime 2}$)$^{1/2}$, increases under pressure, whereas the ratio $J^{prime}$/$J$ remains unchanged in this pressure range. These experimental observations are in accordance with the results of DFT calculations performed for these materials. Secondly, for the magnetoelastic coupling constants, extraordinarily small values are obtained. We assign these observations to a structural peculiarity of this class of materials.
We report an experimental and theoretical study of the low-temperature specific heat $C$ and magnetic susceptibility $chi$ of the layered anisotropic triangular-lattice spin-1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnets Cs$_2$CuCl$_{4-x}$Br$_x$ with $x$ = 0, 1, 2, and 4. We find that the ratio $J/J$ of the exchange couplings ranges from 0.32 to $approx 0.78$, implying a change (crossover or quantum phase transition) in the materials magnetic properties from one-dimensional (1D) behavior for $J/J < 0.6$ to two-dimensional (2D) behavior for $J/J approx 0.78$ behavior. For $J/J < 0.6$, realized for $x$ = 0, 1, and 4, we find a magnetic contribution to the low-temperature specific heat, $C_{rm m} propto T$, consistent with spinon excitations in 1D spin-1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnets. Remarkably, for $x$ = 2, where $J/J approx 0.78$ implies a 2D magnatic character, we also observe $C_{rm m} propto T$. This finding, which contrasts the prediction of $C_{rm m} propto T^2$ made by standard spin-wave theories, shows that Fermi-like statistics also plays a significant role for the magnetic excitations in frustrated spin-1/2 2D antiferromagnets.
We report on a systematic study of the magnetic properties on single crystals of the solid solution Cs$_2$CuCl$_{4-x}$Br$_x$ (0 $leq$ x $leq$ 4), which include the two known end-member compounds Cs$_2$CuCl$_4$ and Cs$_2$CuBr$_4$, classified as quasi-two-dimensional quantum antiferromagnets with different degrees of magnetic frustration. By comparative measurements of the magnetic susceptibility $chi$($T$) on as many as eighteen different Br concentrations, we found that the inplane and out-of-plane magnetic correlations, probed by the position and height of a maximum in the magnetic susceptibility, respectively, do not show a smooth variation with x. Instead three distinct concentration regimes can be identified, which are separated by critical concentrations x$_{c1}$ = 1 and x$_{c2}$ = 2. This unusual magnetic behavior can be explained by considering the structural peculiarities of the materials, especially the distorted Cu-halide tetrahedra, which support a site-selective replacement of Cl- by Br- ions. Consequently, the critical concentrations x$_{c1}$ (x$_{c2}$) mark particularly interesting systems, where one (two) halidesublattice positions are fully occupied.
We report a systematic study on the low-temperature thermal conductivity (kappa) of R_2Ti_2O_7 (R = Gd and Er) single crystals with different directions of magnetic field and heat current. It is found that the magnetic excitations mainly act as phonon scatterers rather than heat carriers, although these two materials have long-range magnetic orders at low temperatures. The low-T kappa(H) isotherms of both compounds show rather complicated behaviors and have good correspondences with the magnetic transitions, where the kappa(H) curves show drastic dip- or step-like changes. In comparison, the field dependencies of kappa are more complicated in Gd_2Ti_2O_7, due to the complexity of its low-T phase diagram and field-induced magnetic transitions. These results demonstrate the significant coupling between spins and phonons in these materials and the ability of heat-transport properties probing the magnetic transitions.
The quantum-spin S = 1=2 chain system Cs$_2$CuCl$_4$ is of high interest due to competing anti-ferromagnetic intra-chain J and inter-chain exchange J interactions and represents a paramount example for Bose-Einstein condensation of magnons [R. Coldea et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 88, 137202 (2002)]. Substitution of chlorine by bromine allows tuning the competing exchange interactions and corresponding magnetic frustration. Here we report on electron spin resonance (ESR) in single crystals of Cs$_2$CuCl$_{4-x}$Br$_x$ with the aim to analyze the evolution of anisotropic exchange contributions. The main source of the ESR linewidth is attributed to the uniform Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction. The vector components of the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction are determined from the angular dependence of the ESR spectra using a high-temperature approximation. The obtained results support the site selectivity of the Br substitution suggested from the evolution of lattice parameters and magnetic susceptibility dependent on the Br concentration.