Plaquette-triplon analysis of magnetic disorder and order in a trimerized spin-1 Kagome antiferromagnet


Abstract in English

A spin-1 Heisenberg model on trimerized Kagome lattice is studied by doing a low-energy bosonic theory in terms of plaquette-triplons defined on its triangular unit-cells. The model has an intra-triangle antiferromagnetic exchange interaction, $J$ (set to 1), and two inter-triangle couplings, $J^prime>0$ (nearest-neighbor) and $J^{primeprime}$ (next-nearest-neighbor; of both signs). The triplon analysis of this model studies the stability of the trimerized singlet (TS) ground state in the $J^prime$-$J^{primeprime}$ plane. It gives a quantum phase diagram that has two gapless antiferromagnetically (AF) ordered phases separated by the spin-gapped TS phase. The TS ground state is found to be stable on $J^{primeprime}=0$ line (the nearest-neighbor case), and on both sides of it for $J^{primeprime} eq 0$, in an extended region bounded by the critical lines of transition to the gapless AF phases. The gapless phase in the negative $J^{primeprime}$ region has a $sqrt{3}timessqrt{3}$ coplanar $120^circ$-AF order, with all the moments of equal length and relative angles of $120^circ$. The other AF phase, in the positive $J^{primeprime}$ region, is found to exhibit a different coplanar order with ordering wave vector ${bf q}=(0,0)$. Here, two magnetic moments in a triangle are of same magnitude, but shorter than the third. While the angle between the two short moments is $120^circ-2delta$, it is $120^circ+delta$ between a short and the long one. Only when $J^{primeprime}=J^prime$, their magnitudes become equal and the relative-angles $120^circ$. This ${bf q}=(0,0)$ phase has the translational symmetry of the Kagome lattice with isosceles triangular unit-cells. The ratio of the intensities of certain Bragg peaks, $I_{(1,0)}/I_{(0,1)} = 4sin^2{(frac{pi}{6}+delta)}$, presents an experimental measure of the deviation, $delta$, from the $120^circ$ order.

Download