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Definitive Evidence for Order-by-Quantum-Disorder in Er2Ti2O7

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 نشر من قبل Lucile Savary
 تاريخ النشر 2012
  مجال البحث فيزياء
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Here we establish the systematic existence of a U(1) degeneracy of all symmetry-allowed Hamiltonians quadratic in the spins on the pyrochlore lattice, at the mean-field level. By extracting the Hamiltonian of Er2Ti2O7 from inelastic neutron scattering measurements, we then show that the U(1)-degenerate states of Er2Ti2O7 are its classical ground states, and unambiguously show that quantum fluctuations break the degeneracy in a way which is confirmed by experiment. This is the first definitive observation of order-by-disorder in any material. We provide further verifiable consequences of this phenomenon, and several additional comparisons between theory and experiment.



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Motivated by recent neutron scattering experiments, we derive and study an effective pseudo-dipolar spin-1/2 model for the XY pyrochlore antiferromagnet Er2Ti2O7. While a bond-dependent in-plane exchange anisotropy removes any continuous symmetry, it does lead to a one-parameter `accidental classical degeneracy. This degeneracy is lifted by quantum fluctuations in favor of the non-coplanar spin structure observed experimentally -- a rare experimental instance of quantum order by disorder. A non-Goldstone low-energy mode is present in the excitation spectrum in accordance with inelastic neutron scattering data. Our theory also resolves the puzzle of the experimentally observed continuous ordering transition, absent from previous models.
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Several rare earth magnetic pyrochlore materials are well modeled by a spin-1/2 quantum Hamiltonian with anisotropic exchange parameters Js. For the Er2Ti2O7 material, the Js were recently determined from high-field inelastic neutron scattering measu rements. Here, we perform high-temperature (T) series expansions to compute the thermodynamic properties of this material using these Js. Comparison with experimental data show that the model describes the material very well including the finite temperature phase transition to an ordered phase at Tc~1.2 K. We show that high temperature expansions give identical results for different q=0 xy order parameter susceptibilities up to 8th order in beta=1/T (presumably to all orders in beta). Conversely, a non-linear susceptibility related to the 6th power of the order parameter reveals a thermal order-by-disorder selection of the same non-colinear psi_2 state as found in Er2Ti2O7.
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132 - S. Petit , J. Robert , S. Guitteny 2014
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