Frustrated bilayer quantum magnets have attracted attention as flat-band spin systems with unconventional thermodynamic properties. We study the low-temperature properties of a frustrated honeycomb-lattice bilayer spin-$frac{1}{2}$ isotropic ($XXX$) Heisenberg antiferromagnet in a magnetic field by means of an effective low-energy theory using exact diagonalizations and quantum Monte Carlo simulations. Our main focus is on the magnetization curve and the temperature dependence of the specific heat indicating a finite-temperature phase transition in high magnetic fields.
We consider the spin-1/2 antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model on a bilayer honeycomb lattice including interlayer frustration in the presence of an external magnetic field. In the vicinity of the saturation field, we map the low-energy states of this quantum system onto the spatial configurations of hard hexagons on a honeycomb lattice. As a result, we can construct effective classical models (lattice-gas as well as Ising models) on the honeycomb lattice to calculate the properties of the frustrated quantum Heisenberg spin system in the low-temperature regime. We perform classical Monte Carlo simulations for a hard-hexagon model and adopt known results for an Ising model to discuss the finite-temperature order-disorder phase transition that is driven by a magnetic field at low temperatures. We also discuss an effective-model description around the ideal frustration case and find indications for a spin-flop like transition in the considered isotropic spin model.
Inelastic neutron scattering study has been performed in an S=3/2 bilayer honeycomb lattice compound Bi3Mn4O12(NO3) at ambient and high magnetic fields. Relatively broad and monotonically dispersive magnetic excitations were observed at ambient field, where no long range magnetic order exists. In the magnetic field-induced long-range ordered state at 10 T, the magnetic dispersions become slightly more intense, albeit still broad as in the disordered state, and two excitation gaps, probably originating from an easy-plane magnetic anisotropy and intrabilayer interactions, develop. Analyzing the magnetic dispersions using the linear spin-wave theory, we estimated the intraplane and intrabilayer magnetic interactions, which are almost consistent with those determined by ab initio density functional theory calculations [M. Alaei et al., Phys. Rev. B 96, 140404(R) (2017)], except the 3rd and 4th neighbor intrabilayer interactions. Most importantly, as predicted by the theory, there is no significant frustration in the honeycomb plane but frustrating intrabilayer interactions probably give rise to the disordered ground state.
In the present paper we study the phase diagram of the Heisenberg model on the honeycomb lattice with antiferromagnetic interactions up to third neighbors along the line $J_2=J_3$ that include the point $J_2=J_3=J_1/2$, corresponding to the highly frustrated point where the classical ground state has macroscopic degeneracy. Using the Linear Spin-Wave, Schwinger boson technique followed by a mean field decoupling and exact diagonalization for small systems we find an intermediate phase with a spin gap and short range Neel correlations in the strong quantum limit (S=1/2). All techniques provide consistent results which allow us to predict the existence of a quantum disordered phase, which may have been observed in recent high-field ESR measurements in manganites.
The spin wave excitations of the geometrically frustrated triangular lattice antiferromagnet (TLA) $rm CuFeO_2$ have been measured using high resolution inelastic neutron scattering. Antiferromagnetic interactions up to third nearest neighbors in the ab plane (J_1, J_2, J_3, with $J_2/J_1 approx 0.44$ and $J_3/J_1 approx 0.57$), as well as out-of-plane coupling (J_z, with $J_z/J_1 approx 0.29$) are required to describe the spin wave dispersion relations, indicating a three dimensional character of the magnetic interactions. Two energy dips in the spin wave dispersion occur at the incommensurate wavevectors associated with multiferroic phase, and can be interpreted as dynamic precursors to the magnetoelectric behavior in this system.
Layered antiferromagnetic spin density wave (LAF) state is one of the plausible ground states of charge neutral Bernal stacked bilayer graphene. In this paper, we use determinant quantum Monte Carlo method to study the effect of the electric field on the magnetic order in bilayer Hubbard model on a honeycomb lattice. Our results qualitatively support the LAF ground state found in the mean field theory. The obtained magnetic moments, however, are much smaller than what are estimated in the mean field theory. As electric field increases, the magnetic order parameter rapidly decreases.