No Arabic abstract
We present calculations of the magnetic ground state of Cs_2CuCl_4 in an applied magnetic field, with the aim of understanding the commensurately ordered state that has been discovered in recent experiments. This layered material is a realization of a Heisenberg antiferromagnet on an anisotropic triangular lattice. Its behavior in a magnetic field depends on field orientation, because of weak Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions.We study the system by mapping the spin-1/2 Heisenberg Hamiltonian onto a Bose gas with hard core repulsion. This Bose gas is dilute, and calculations are controlled, close to the saturation field. We find a zero-temperature transition between incommensurate and commensurate phases as longitudinal field strength is varied, but only incommensurate order in a transverse field. Results for both field orientations are consistent with experiment.
We present detailed calculations of the magnetic ground state properties of Cs$_2$CuCl$_4$ in an applied magnetic field, and compare our results with recent experiments. The material is described by a spin Hamiltonian, determined with precision in high field measurements, in which the main interaction is antiferromagnetic Heisenberg exchange between neighboring spins on an anisotropic triangular lattice. An additional, weak Dzyaloshinkii-Moriya interaction introduces easy-plane anisotropy, so that behavior is different for transverse and longitudinal field directions. We determine the phase diagram as a function of field strength for both field directions at zero temperature, using a classical approximation as a first step. Building on this, we calculate the effect of quantum fluctuations on the ordering wavevector and components of the ordered moments, using both linear spinwave theory and a mapping to a Bose gas which gives exact results when the magnetization is almost saturated. Many aspects of the experimental data are well accounted for by this approach.
The zero temperature phase diagram of the mono-axial chiral helimagnet in the magnetic field plane formed by the components parallel and perpendicular to the helical axis is thoroughly analyzed. The nature of the transition to the commensurate state depends on the angle between the field and the helical axis. For field directions close to the directions parallel or perpendicular to the helical axis the transition is continuous, while for intermediate angles the transition is discontinuous and the incommensurate and commensurate states coexist on the transition line. The continuous and discontinuous transition lines are separated by two tricritical points with specific singular behaviour. The location of the continuous and discontinuous lines and of the tricritical points depend strongly on the easy-plane anisotropy, the effect of which is analyzed. For large anisotropy the conical approximation locates the transition line very accurately, although it does not predict the continuous transitions nor the tricitical behaviour. It is shown that for large anisotropy, as in CrNb3S6, the form of the transition line is universal, that is, independent of the sample, and obeys a simple equation. The position of the tricritical points, which is not universal, is theoretically estimated for a sample of CrNb3S6
Linearly polarized spectra of far-infrared (IR) transmission in HoMn2O5 multiferroic single crystals have been studied in the frequency range between 8.5 and 105 cm-1 and for temperatures between 5 K and 300 K. Polarization of IR-active excitations depends on the crystallographic directions in HoMn2O5 and is sensitive to the magnetic phase transitions. We attribute some of the infrared-active excitations to electric-dipole transitions between ligand-field split states of Ho3+ ions. For light polarization along crystalline b-axis, the oscillator strength of electric dipoles at low frequencies (10.5, 13, and 18 cm-1) changes significantly at the commensurate-incommensurate antiferromagnetic phase transition at T3 = 19 K. This effect shows a strong correlation with the pronounced steps of the b-directional static dielectric function. We propose that the ligand field (LF) on Ho3+ connects the magnetism and dielectric properties of this compound through coupling with the Mn spin structure. We comment on the possibility for composite excitations of magnons and excited LF states.
Neutron diffraction has been used to determine the magnetic structure of Na$_8$Cu$_5$O$_{10}$, a stoichiometric compound containing chains based on edge-sharing CuO$_4$ plaquettes. The chains are doped with 2/5 hole per Cu site and exhibit long-range commensurate charge order with an onset well above room temperature. Below $T_N = 23$ K, the neutron data indicate long-range collinear magnetic order with a spin density modulation whose propagation vector is commensurate along and incommensurate perpendicular to the chains. Competing interchain exchange interactions are discussed as a possible origin of the incommensurate magnetic order.
The nature of competition between incommensurate (IC) and commensurate (C) antiferromagnetic (AF) orders in UPd2Si2 was investigated by performing elastic neutron scattering experiments under uniaxial stress sigma. It is found that applying sigma along tetragonal [010] direction reduces the IC-AF order, and then stabilizes the C-AF order. The transition temperature from IC- to C-AF phases T_Nl is enhanced from 109 K (sigma=0) to 112.5 K (0.8 GPa), while the onset of IC-AF transition T_Nh is unchanged from 132 K under sigma. In addition, c-axis component q_z of the IC-AF modulation at 115 K also increases from 0.736 (sigma=0) to 0.747 (0.8 GPa). The magnitude of C-AF moment at 5 K is estimated to be 2.2 mu_B/U in the entire sigma range presently investigated (sigma <= 0.8 GPa). These features are similar to those obtained from the investigations using hydrostatic pressure p, indicating that applications of p and sigma||[010] commonly induce the crystal strains which inherently affect a delicate balance of frustrated magnetic interactions between uranium 5f moments.