No Arabic abstract
Dimensionality is a critical factor in determining the properties of solids and is an apparent built-in character of the crystal structure. However, it can be an emergent and tunable property in geometrically frustrated spin systems. Here, we study the spin dynamics of the tetrahedral cluster antiferromagnet, pharmacosiderite, via muon spin resonance and neutron scattering. We find that the spin correlation exhibits a two-dimensional characteristic despite the isotropic connectivity of tetrahedral clusters made of spin 5/2 Fe3+ ions in the three-dimensional cubic crystal, which we ascribe to two-dimensionalisation by geometrical frustration based on spin wave calculations. Moreover, we suggest that even one-dimensionalisation occurs in the decoupled layers, generating low-energy and one-dimensional excitation modes, causing large spin fluctuation in the classical spin system. Pharmacosiderite facilitates studying the emergence of low-dimensionality and manipulating anisotropic responses arising from the dimensionality using an external magnetic field.
We show that pharmacosiderite is a novel cluster antiferromagnet comprising frustrated regular tetrahedra made of spin-5/2 Fe3+ ions that are arranged in the primitive cubic lattice. The connectivity of the tetrahedra and the inter-cluster interaction of 2.9 K, which is significantly large compared with the intra-cluster interaction of 10.6 K, gives a unique playground for frustration physics. An unconventional antiferromagnetic order is observed below TN ~ 6 K, which is accompanied by a weak ferromagnetic moment and a large fluctuation as evidenced by Mossbauer spectroscopy. A q = 0 magnetic order with the total S = 0 for the tetrahedral cluster is proposed based on the irreducible representation analysis, which may explain the origin of the weak ferromagnetism and fluctuation.
Geometrical frustration describes situations where interactions are incompatible with the lattice geometry and stabilizes exotic phases such as spin liquids. Whether geometrical frustration of magnetic interactions in metals can induce unconventional quantum critical points is an active area of research. We focus on the hexagonal heavy fermion metal CeRhSn where the Kondo ions are located on distorted kagome planes stacked along the c axis. Low-temperature specific heat, thermal expansion and magnetic Gruneisen parameter measurements prove a zero-field quantum critical point. The linear thermal expansion, which measures the initial uniaxial pressure derivative of the entropy, displays a striking anisotropy. Critical and noncritical behaviors along and perpendicular to the kagome planes, respectively, prove that quantum criticality is driven by geometrical frustration. We also discovered a spin-flop-type metamagnetic crossover. This excludes an itinerant scenario and suggests that quantum criticality is related to local moments in a spin-liquid like state.
Hexagonal CeRhSn with paramagnetic $4f$ moments on a distorted Kagome lattice displays zero-field quantum critical behavior related to geometrical frustration. We report high-resolution thermal expansion and magnetostriction measurements under multiextreme conditions such as uniaxial stress up to 200 MPa, temperatures down to 0.1 K and magnetic fields up to 10 T. Under uniaxial stress along the $a$-direction, quantum criticality disappears and a complex magnetic phase diagram arises with a sequence of phases below 1.2 K and fields between 0 and 3 T ($parallel a$). Since the Kondo coupling increases with stress, which alone would stabilize paramagnetic behavior in CeRhSn, the observed order arises from the release of geometrical frustration by in-plane stress.
Triangular Heisenberg antiferromagnets are prototypes of geometric frustration, even if for nearest-neighbor interactions quantum fluctuations are not usually strong enough to destroy magnetic ordering: stronger frustration is required to stabilize a spin-liquid phase. On the basis of static magnetization and ESR measurements, we demonstrate the emergence of ${tilde{j}_{text{eff}}=frac12}$ moments in the triangular-lattice magnet Na$_2$BaCo(PO$_4$)$_2$. These moments are subject to an extra source of frustration that causes magnetic correlations to set in far above both the magnetic ordering and Weiss temperatures. Corroborating the $tilde{j}_{text{eff}}=frac12$ ground state, theory identifies ferromagnetic Kitaev exchange anisotropy as additional frustrating agent, altogether putting forward Na$_2$BaCo(PO$_4$)$_2$ as a new, promising Kitaev spin-liquid material.
The classical Heisenberg antiferromagnet on a triangular lattice with the single-ion anisotropy of the easy-axis type is theoretically investigated. The mean-field phase diagram in an external magnetic field is constructed. Three finite-temperature Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transitions are found by the Monte Carlo simulations in zero field. The two upper transitions are related to the breaking of the discrete ${mathbb Z}_{6}$ symmetry group, while the lowest transition is associated with a quasi-long-range ordering of transverse components. The intermediate collinear phase between first and second transitions is the sliding phase predicted by J. V. Jose {it et al}. [Phys. Rev. B {bf 16}, 1217 (1977)].