We predict that an external field can induce a spin order in highly frustrated classical Heisenberg magnets. We find analytically stabilization of collinear states by thermal fluctuations at a one-third of the saturation field for kagome and garnet lattices and at a half of the saturation field for pyrochlore and frustrated square lattices. This effect is studied numerically for the frustrated square-lattice antiferromagnet by Monte Carlo simulations for classical spins and by exact diagonalization for $S=1/2$. The field induced collinear states have a spin gap and produce magnetization plateaus.
We argue that collinearly ordered states which exist in strongly frustrated spin systems for special rational values of the magnetization are stabilized by thermal as well as quantum fluctuations. These general predictions are tested by Monte Carlo simulations for the classical and Lanczos diagonalization for the S=1/2 frustrated square-lattice antiferromagnet.
Motivated by the recent synthesis of the spin-1 A-site spinel NiRh$_{text 2}$O$_{text 4}$, we investigate the classical to quantum crossover of a frustrated $J_1$-$J_2$ Heisenberg model on the diamond lattice upon varying the spin length $S$. Applying a recently developed pseudospin functional renormalization group (pf-FRG) approach for arbitrary spin-$S$ magnets, we find that systems with $S geq 3/2$ reside in the classical regime where the low-temperature physics is dominated by the formation of coplanar spirals and a thermal (order-by-disorder) transition. For smaller local moments $S$=1 or $S$=1/2 we find that the system evades a thermal ordering transition and forms a quantum spiral spin liquid where the fluctuations are restricted to characteristic momentum-space surfaces. For the tetragonal phase of NiRh$_{text 2}$O$_{text 4}$, a modified $J_1$-$J_2^-$-$J_2^perp$ exchange model is found to favor a conventionally ordered Neel state (for arbitrary spin $S$) even in the presence of a strong local single-ion spin anisotropy and it requires additional sources of frustration to explain the experimentally observed absence of a thermal ordering transition.
muSR experiments on the geometrically frustrated spinel oxide, Li2Mn2O4, show the development of spin correlations over a range of length scales with decreasing temperature. Increased relaxation below 150 K is consistent with the onset of spin correlations. Below 50 K, spin order on a length scale, which is long range for the muSR probe, appears abruptly in temperature, consistent with prior neutron diffraction results. The oscillations in the zero field asymmetry are analyzed using a three frequency model. By locating the muon site this is shown to be consistent with the unexpected 2D q = root 3 x root 3 structure on the Kagome planes proposed originally from neutron data. Longitudinal field data demonstrate that some spin dynamics persist even at 2 K. Thus, a very complex magnetic ground state, featuring the co-existence of long length scale 2D ordering and significant spin dynamics, is proposed. This is unusual considering the 3D topology of the Mn3+ spins in this material.
Quantum phase transition at the saturation field is studied for a class of frustrated quantum antiferromagnets. The considered models include (i) the $J_1$-$J_2$ frustrated square-lattice antiferromagnet with $J_2={1/2}J_1$ and (ii) the nearest-neighbor Heisenberg antiferromagnet on a face centered cubic lattice. In the fully saturated phase the magnon spectra for the two models have lines of degenerate minima. Transition into partially magnetized state is treated via a mapping to a dilute gas of hard core bosons and by complementary spin-wave calculations. Momentum dependence of the exact four-point boson vertex removes the degeneracy of the single-particle excitation spectra and selects the ordering wave-vectors at $(pi,pi)$ and $(pi,0,0)$ for the two models. The asymptotic behavior of the magnetization curve differs significantly from that of conventional antiferromagnet in $d$-spatial dimensions. We predict a unique form for the magnetization curve $Delta M=S-Msimeq mu^{(d-1)/2}(logmu)^{(d-1)}$, where $mu$ is a distance from the quantum critical point.
We study an incommensurate long-range order induced by an external magnetic field in a quasi-one-dimensional bond-alternating spin system, F5PNN, focusing on the role of the frustrating interaction which can be enhanced by a high-pressure effect. On the basis of the density matrix renormalization group analysis of a microscopic model for F5PNN, we present several H-T phase diagrams for typical parameters of the frustrating next-nearest-neighbour coupling and the interchain interaction, and then discuss how the field-induced incommensurate order develops by the frustration effect in such phase diagrams. A magnetization plateau at half the saturation moment is also mentioned.