We revisit the physics of electron gas bilayers in the quantum Hall regime [Nature, 432 (2004) 691; Science, 305 (2004) 950], where transport and tunneling measurements provided evidence of a superfluid phase being present in the system. Previously,
this behavior was explained by the possible formation of a BEC of excitons in the half-filled electron bilayers, where empty states play the role of holes. We discuss the fundamental difficulties with this scenario, and propose an alternative approach based on a treatment of the system as a pseudospin magnet. We show that the experimentally observed tunneling peak can be linked to the XY ferromagnet (FM) to Ising antiferromagnet (AFM) phase transition of the S=1/2 XXZ pseudospin model, driven by the change in total electron density. This transition is accompanied by a qualitative change in the nature of the low energy spin wave dispersion from a gapless linear mode in the XY-FM phase to a gapped, quadratic mode in the Ising-AFM phase.
Pulsed-field magnetization experiments (fields $B$ of up to 85 T and temperatures $T$ down to 0.4 K) are reported on nine organic Cu-based two-dimensional (2D) Heisenberg magnets. All compounds show a low-$T$ magnetization that is concave as a functi
on of $B$, with a sharp ``elbow transition to a constant value at a field $B_{rm c}$. Monte-Carlo simulations including a finite interlayer exchange energy $J_{perp}$ quantitatively reproduce the data; the concavity indicates the effective dimensionality and $B_{rm c}$ is an accurate measure of the in-plane exchange energy $J$. Using these values and Neel temperatures measured by muon-spin rotation, it is also possible to obtain a quantitative estimate of $|J_{perp}/J|$. In the light of these results, it is suggested that in magnets of the form [Cu(HF$_2$)(pyz)$_2$]X, where X is an anion, the sizes of $J$ and $J_{perp}$ are controlled by the tilting of the pyrazine (pyz) molecule with respect to the 2D planes.
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 meas
urements 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.
