No Arabic abstract
We study frustrated spin-1/2 dimer systems in two dimensions with a bilayer structure, where spins are ferromagnetically coupled in dimers. Our model includes frustrated two-spin exchange interactions as well as four-spin interaction. We pay particular attention to the spin nematic phase, which does not exhibit any magnetic (spin-dipole) order but has a spin-quadrupolar long-range order. Employing a perturbation calculation, a mean-field approximation, and a numerical many-variable variational Monte Carlo method, we determine ground-state phase diagrams on various two-dimensional lattices. It is found that the model exhibits the spin nematic phase with ferro-quadrupolar order in a wide parameter region, in addition to conventional magnetically-ordered phases. In particular, it is shown that even when the four-spin interactions are absent, frustrated two-spin exchange interactions can realize the spin nematic phase as a result of strong interdimer correlations. It is also found that the phase transitions between the spin nematic phase and antiferromagnetic phases can be continuous. Furthermore, we present some exact arguments that various phases including the spin nematic phase and the vector chiral (p-type nematic) phase emerge from an SU(4) symmetric point in the model by the addition of appropriate perturbative interactions. The spin nematic phase generated from the SU(4) point is connected with the spin nematic phase found numerically in the system with only two-spin interactions.
Magnetic excitation in a spin dimer system on a bilayer honeycomb lattice is investigated in the presence of a zigzag edge, where disordered and ordered phases can be controlled by a quantum phase transition. In analogy with the case of graphene with a zigzag edge, a flat edge magnon mode appears in the disordered phase. In an ordered phase, a finite magnetic moment generates a mean-field potential to the magnon. Since the potential is nonuniform on the edge and bulk sites, it affects the excitation, and the dispersion of the edge mode deviates from the flat shape. We investigate how the edge magnon mode evolves when the phase changes through the quantum phase transition and discuss the similarities to ordered spin systems on a monolayer honeycomb lattice.
In the spin ladder compound BiCu$_2$PO$_6$ there exists a decisive dynamics of spin excitations that we classify and characterize using inelastic light scattering. We observe low-energy singlets and a broad triplon continuum extending from 36 cm$^{-1}$ to 700 cm$^{-1}$ in ($aa$), ($bb$), and ($cc$) light scattering polarizations. Though isolated spin ladder physics can roughly account for the observed excitations at high energies, frustration and interladder interactions need to be considered to fully describe the spectral distribution and scattering selection rules at low and intermediate energies. More significantly, an interladder singlet bound mode at 24 cm$^{-1}$, lying below the continuum, shows its largest scattering intensity in interladder ($ab$) polarization. In contrast, two intraladder bound states at 62 cm$^{-1}$ and 108 cm$^{-1}$ with energies comparable to the continuum are observed with light polarization along the leg ($bb$) and the rung ($cc$). We attribute the rich spectrum of singlet bound modes to a melting of a dimer crystal. Our study provides evidence for a Z$_2$ quantum phase transition from a dimer to a resonating valence bond state driven by singlet fluctuations.
Heat capacity and magnetic torque measurements are used to probe the anisotropic temperature-field phase diagram of the frustrated spin dimer compound Ba3Mn2O8 in the field range from 0T to 18T. For fields oriented along the c axis a single magnetically ordered phase is found in this field range, whereas for fields oriented along the a axis two distinct phases are observed. The present measurements reveal a surprising non-monotonic evolution of the phase diagram as the magnetic field is rotated in the [001]-[100] plane. The angle dependence of the critical field (Hc1) that marks the closing of the spin gap can be quantitatively accounted for using a minimal spin Hamiltonian comprising superexchange between nearest and next nearest Mn ions, the Zeeman energy and single ion anisotropy. This Hamiltonian also predicts a non-monotonic evolution of the transition between the two ordered states as the field is rotated in the a-c plane. However, the observed effect is found to be significantly larger in magnitude, implying that either this minimal spin Hamiltonian is incomplete or that the magnetically ordered states have a slightly different structure than previously proposed.
Ba3Mn2O8 is a spin-dimer compound based on pairs of S=1, 3d^2, Mn^{5+} ions arranged on a triangular lattice. Antiferromagnetic intradimer exchange leads to a singlet ground state in zero-field. Here we present the first results of thermodynamic measurements for single crystals probing the high-field ordered states of this material associated with closing the spin gap to the excited triplet states. Specific heat, magnetocaloric effect, and torque magnetometry measurements were performed in magnetic fields up to 32 T and temperatures down to 20 mK. For fields above H_{c1} ~ 8.7 T, these measurements reveal a single magnetic phase for H parallel to c, but two distinct phases (approximately symmetric about the center of the phase diagram) for H perpendicular to c. Analysis of the simplest possible spin Hamiltonian describing this system yields candidates for these ordered states corresponding to a simple spiral structure for H parallel to c, and to two distinct modulated phases for H perpendicular to c. Both single-ion anisotropy and geometric frustration play crucial roles in defining the phase diagram.
We study a family of frustrated anti-ferromagnetic spin-$S$ systems with a fully dimerized ground state. This state can be exactly obtained without the need to include any additional three-body interaction in the model. The simplest members of the family can be used as a building block to generate more complex geometries like spin tubes with a fully dimerized ground state. After present some numerical results about the phase diagram of these systems, we show that the ground state is robust against the inclusion of weak disorder in the couplings as well as several kinds of perturbations, allowing to study some other interesting models as a perturbative expansion of the exact one. A discussion on how to determine the dimerization region in terms of quantum information estimators is also presented. Finally, we explore the relation of these results with a the case of the a 4-leg spin tube which recently was proposed as the model for the description of the compound Cu$_2$Cl$_4$D$_8$C$_4$SO$_2$, delimiting the region of the parameter space where this model presents dimerization in its ground state.