We present single crystal inelastic neutron scattering measurements of the S=1 dimerized quasi-two-dimensional antiferromagnet Ba$_3$Mn$_2$O$_8$. The singlet-triplet dispersion reveals nearest-neighbor and next-nearest-neighbor ferromagnetic interactions between adjacent bilayers that compete against each other. Although the inter-bilayer exchange is comparable to the intra-bilayer exchange, this additional frustration reduces the effective coupling along the c-axis and leads to a quasi-two dimensional behavior. In addition, the obtained exchange values are able to reproduce the four critical fields in the phase diagram.
We investigate quantum phase transitions in the frustrated orthogonal-dimer chain with an arbitrary spin $S \geq 1/2$. When the ratio of the competing exchange couplings is varied, first-order phase transitions occur 2S times among distinct spin-gap phases. The introduction of single-ion anisotropy further enriches the phase diagram. The phase transitions described by the present model possess most of the essential properties inherent in frustrated quantum spin systems.
In2VO5, containing magnetically frustrated zig-zag chains, shows a remarkable magnetic crossover at 120 K between paramagnetic states with positive (17 K) and negative (-70 K) Weiss temperatures. Magnetic moment and entropy data show that the V4+ S = 1/2 spins condense into S = 1 triplet dimers below the crossover. A further freezing of the antiferromagnetically coupled triplet dimers into a global singlet state is observed at 2.5 K, with no long range magnetic order down to 0.42 K and in fields up to 9 T. No structural V-V dimerization is observed by high-resolution X-ray diffraction down to …
We study the frustrated dimer-plaquette quantum spin chain for ferromagnetic dimer bonds. This quantum system undergoes a series of first-order ground-state phase transitions driven by frustration or by a magnetic field. We find that the different nature of the ground-state phases has a strong influence on the magnetization curve as well as the low-temperature thermodynamics. In particular, the magnetization curve exhibits plateaus and jumps, the number of which depends on the strength of frustration. The temperature dependence of the susceptibility may either show activated spin-gap behaviour…
We investigate the influence of quenched disorder on the dynamic structure factor of Heisenberg bilayers on the square, triangular, and kagome lattice in the quantum paramagnetic phase. Perturbative continuous unitary transformations and white graphs are employed to calculate the one-triplon contribution up to high orders in perturbation about the dimer limit for bimodal and continuous disorder. For the square lattice we find that the lifetime of the gap mode is increased by stronger quantum correlations while stronger disorder effects are observed for the triangular lattice due to geometric f…
We determined the crystal structure of Ba$_2$CoSi$_2$O$_6$Cl$_2$, which was synthesized in this work, and investigated its quantum magnetic properties using single crystals. This compound should be described as a two-dimensionally coupled spin-1/2 XY-like spin dimer system. Ba$_2$CoSi$_2$O$_6$Cl$_2$ exhibits a stepwise magnetization process with a plateau at half of the saturation magnetization, irrespective of the field direction, although all the Co$^{2+}$ sites are equivalent. This indicates that spin triplets are localized owing to the almost perfect frustration of interdimer exchange inte…
With the classical Monte Carlo method, I find the energy gap in the Rokhsar-Kivelson dimer model on the triangular lattice. I identify the lowest excitations as visons, and compute their energy as a function of the momentum.
We examine the optical conductivity σ(ω) and the chemical potential μ, together with the spin correlation, in the strong-coupling limit of a hole-doped two-dimensional triangular Hubbard model near half filling by using an exact diagonalization technique. In contrast to the case of a square lattice without frustration, the doping dependences of μand the Drude weight indicate that the charge degree of freedom is weakly coupled to the spin degree of freedom. However, we find that σ(ω) shows strong incoherent excitations extended to a higher energy region. This implies that geometrical frustratio…
Dimer models have long been a fruitful playground for understanding topological physics. Here we introduce a new class - termed Majorana-dimer models - wherein bosonic dimers are decorated with pairs of Majorana modes. We find that the simplest examples of such systems realize an intriguing, intrinsically fermionic phase of matter that can be viewed as the product of a chiral Ising theory, which hosts deconfined non-Abelian quasiparticles, and a topological $p_x - ip_y$ superconductor. While the bulk anyons are described by a single copy of the Ising theory, the edge remains fully gapped. Cons…
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 electron spin resonance 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 …
We study the double-exchange model at half-filling with competing superexchange interactions on a triangular lattice, combining exact diagonalization and Monte-Carlo methods. We find that in between the expected itinerant ferromagnetic and $120^{\circ}$ Yafet-Kittel phases a robust scalar-chiral, insulating spin state emerges. At finite temperatures the ferromagnet - scalar-chiral quantum critical point is characterized by anomalous bad-metal behavior in charge transport as observed in frustrated itinerant magnets R$_2$Mo$_{2}$O$_7$.
Evolution of the magnetic response function in the triangular-lattice Hubbard model is studied with interaction strength within a systematic inverse-degeneracy expansion scheme which incorporates self-energy and vertex corrections and explicitly preserves the spin-rotation symmetry. It is shown that at half filling the response function goes through a nearly dispersionless regime around K for intermediate coupling strength, before undergoing an inversion at strong coupling, resulting in maximum response at the K point, consistent with the expected 120^o AF instability. Effects of finite hole/e…
Single-particle dynamics in the 120$^{\circ}$ ordered antiferromagnetic state of the triangular-lattice Hubbard model is studied using a physically transparent fluctuation approach in terms of multiple magnon emission and absorption processes within the noncrossing approximation. Hole and electron spectral features are evaluated at intermediate $U$, and analyzed in terms of a competition between the frustration-induced direct hopping and the virtual hopping terms. Finite $U$-induced competing interactions and frustration effects contributing through the magnon dispersion are also discussed. Fi…
We construct a two-dimensional microscopic model of interacting quantum dimers that displays an infinite number of periodic striped phases in its T=0 phase diagram. The phases form an incomplete devil's staircase and the period becomes arbitrarily large as the staircase is traversed. The Hamiltonian has purely short-range interactions, does not break any symmetries of the underlying square lattice, and is generic in that it does not involve the fine-tuning of a large number of parameters. Our model, a quantum mechanical analog of the Pokrovsky-Talapov model of fluctuating domain walls in two d…
We study numerically the dimerized Heisenberg model with frustration appropriate for the quasi-1D spin-Peierls compound CuGeO$_3$. We present evidence for a bound state in the dynamical structure factor for any finite dimerization $δ$ and estimate the respective spectral weight. For the homogeneous case ($δ=0$) we show that the spin-wave velocity $v_s$ is renormalized by the n.n.n. frustration term $α$ as $v_s=π/2 J(1-bα)$ with $b\approx1.12$
We report high resolution neutron scattering measurements on the triangular lattice Mott insulator Na$_x$CrO$_2$ ($x$=1) which has recently been shown to exhibit an unusually broad fluctuating crossover regime extending far below the onset of spin freezing ($T_c\sim$41K). Our results show that below some crossover temperature ($T\sim0.75T_c$) a small incommensuration develops which helps resolve the spin frustration and drives three-dimensional magnetic order supporting coherent spin wave modes. This incommensuration assisted dimensional crossover suggests that inter-layer frustration is respo…
The $1/4$-filled organic compound, $δ$-(EDT-TTF-CONMe$_{2}$)$_{2}$AsF$_6$ is a frustrated two-dimensional triangular magnetic system as shown by high-frequency (111.2 and 222.4 GHz) electron spin resonance (ESR) and structural data in the literature. The material gradually orders antiferromagnetically below 40~K but some magnetically disordered domains persist down to 4 K. We propose that in defect free regions frustration prevents true magnetic order down to at least 4 K in spite of the large first- and second-neighbor exchange interactions along chains and between chains, respectively. The a…
We synthesized a quasi-two-dimensional distorted triangular lattice antiferromagnet Ca$_3$CoNb$_2$O$_9$, in which the effective spin of Co$^{2+}$ is 1/2 at low temperatures, whose magnetic properties were studied by dc susceptibility and magnetization techniques. The x-ray diffraction confirms the quality of our powder samples. The large Weiss constant $θ_{CW}\sim$ $-55$ K and the low Neel temperature($T_N\sim$ 1.45 K) give a frustration factor $f$ ($=\midθ_{CW}/T_N \mid$) $\approx$ 38, suggesting that Ca$_3$CoNb$_2$O$_9$ resides in strong frustration regime. Slightly below $T_N$, deviation be…
We study the quantum dimer model on the triangular lattice, which is expected to describe the singlet dynamics of frustrated Heisenberg models in phases where valence bond configurations dominate their physics. We find, in contrast to the square lattice, that there is a truly short ranged resonating valence bond (RVB) phase with no gapless collective excitations and with deconfined, gapped, spinons for a {\it finite} range of parameters. We also establish the presence of three crystalline phases in this system.
The doped two-dimensional quantum dimer model is investigated by numerical techniques on the square and triangular lattices, with significantly different results. On the square lattice, at small enough doping, there is always a phase separation between an insulating valence-bond solid and a uniform superfluid phase, whereas on the triangular lattice, doping leads directly to a uniform superfluid in a large portion of the RVB phase. Under an applied Aharonov-Bohm flux, the superfluid exhibits quantization in terms of half-flux quanta, consistent with Q=2e elementary charge quanta in transport p…
We report on an exhaustive investigation of the dynamical dimer-dimer correlations in imaginary time for the quantum dimer model on the triangular lattice using the Green's function Monte Carlo method. We show in particular that soft modes develop upon reducing the dimer-dimer repulsion, indicating the presence of a second-order phase transition into an ordered phase with broken translational symmetry. We further investigate the nature of this ordered phase, for which a 12-site unit cell has been previously proposed, with the surprising result that significant Bragg peaks are only present at t…
Motivated by recent experiments on BaCuSi2O6, we investigate magnetic excitations and quantum phase transitions of layered dimer magnets with inter-layer frustration. We consider two scenarios, (A) a lattice with one dimer per unit cell and perfect inter-layer frustration, and (B) an enlarged unit cell with inequivalent layers, with and without perfect frustration. In all situations, the critical behavior at asymptotically low temperatures is three-dimensional, but the corresponding crossover scale may be tiny. Magnetic ordering in case (B) can be discussed in terms of two condensates; remarka…
The spin-orbital model for triply degenerate t_2g electrons on a triangular lattice has been shown to be dominated by dimers: the phase diagram contains both strongly resonating, compound spin-orbital dimer states and quasi-static, spin-singlet valence-bond (VB) states. To elucidate the nature of the true ground state in these different regimes, the model is mapped to a number of quantum dimer models (QDMs), each of which has three dimer colors. The generic multicolored QDM, illustrated for the two- and three-color cases, possesses a topological color structure, "color vison" excitations, and …
Using exact diagonalizations and Green's function Monte Carlo simulations, we have studied the zero-temperature properties of the quantum dimer model on the triangular lattice on clusters with up to 588 sites. A detailed comparison of the properties in different topological sectors as a function of the cluster size and for different cluster shapes has allowed us to identify different phases, to show explicitly the presence of topological degeneracy in a phase close to the Rokhsar-Kivelson point, and to understand finite-size effects inside this phase. The nature of the various phases has been …
The phase diagram of an antiferromagnetic ladder with frustrating next-nearest neighbor couplings along the legs is determined using numerical methods (exact diagonalization and density-matrix renormalization group) supplemented by strong-coupling and mean-field analysis. Interestingly, this model displays remarkable features, bridging the physics of the J_1-J_2 chain and of the unfrustated ladder. The phase diagram as a function of the transverse coupling J_{\perp} and the frustration J_2 exhibits an Ising transition between a columnar phase of dimers and the usual rung-singlet phase of two-l…
After reviewing the concept of vison excitations in Z_2 dimer liquids, we study the liquid-crystal transition of the Quantum Dimer Model on the triangular lattice by means of a semiclassical spin-wave approximation to the dispersion of visons in the context of a "soft-dimer" version of the model. This approach captures some important qualitative features of the transition: continuous nature of the transition, linear dispersion at the critical point, and \sqrt{12}x\sqrt{12} symmetry-breaking pattern. In a second part, we present a variational calculation of the vison dispersion relation at the …
We consider the spin--orbital model for a magnetic system with singly occupied but triply degenerate $t_{2g}$ orbitals coupled into a planar, triangular lattice, as would be exemplified by NaTiO$_2$. We investigate the ground states of the model for interactions which interpolate between the limits of pure superexchange and purely direct exchange interactions. By considering ordered and dimerized states at the mean--field level, and by interpreting the results from exact diagonalization calculations on selected finite systems, we demonstrate that orbital interactions are always frustrated, and…
In quantum magnetism spin dimers are typically associated with spin-singlet states. To date, $triplet$ $dimerization$ has not been observed in any 3D or quasi-2D material. With this in mind we here discuss the electronic structure of the spin-orbit driven $5d^5$ Mott insulator Li$_2$IrO$_3$, a honeycomb-lattice system with two crystallographically inequivalent Ir-Ir bonds. From $ab$ $initio$ many-body calculations we find that, while both Heisenberg and Kitaev couplings are present, the magnetic interactions are dominated by a strong isotropic ferromagnetic exchange on only one set of bonds. T…
We present a detailed investigation of the magnetic properties of the spin-$\frac{3}{2}$ system Li$_2$Co(WO$_4$)$_2$ by means of magnetic susceptibility and specific heat. Our experimental results show that in Li$_2$Co(WO$_4$)$_2$ a short-range antiferromagnetic (AFM) correlations appear near $χ$$_{max}$ $\sim$ 11 K and two successive long-range AFM phase transitions are observed at T$_{N1}$$\sim$ 9 K and T$_{N2}$$\sim$ 7 K. The frustration factor, $\mid$$Θ$$\mid$/T$_{N1}$$\sim$3, indicates that the system is moderately frustrated, which is identifiable by the broken triangular symmetry within…
We investigate the Hubbard model on the anisotropic triangular lattice by means of the cellular dynamical mean field theory. The phase diagram determined in the Hubbard interaction versus temperature plane shows novel reentrant behavior in the Mott transition due to the competition between Fermi-liquid formation and magnetic correlations under geometrical frustration. We demonstrate that the reentrant behavior is characteristic of the Mott transition with intermediate geometrical frustration and indeed consistent with recent experimental results of organic materials.
Phase inhomogeneity of otherwise chemically homogenous electronic systems is an essential ingredient leading to fascinating functional properties, such as high-$T_c$ superconductivity in cuprates, colossal magnetoresistance in manganites, and giant electrostriction in relaxors. In these materials distinct phases compete and can coexist due to intertwined ordered parameters. Charge degrees of freedom play a fundamental role, although phase-separated ground states have been envisioned theoretically also for pure spin systems with geometrical frustration that serves as a source of phase competiti…
An effective spin-orbit Hamiltonian is derived for a spin-1/2 trimerized kagome antiferromagnet in the second-order of perturbation theory in the ratio of two coupling constants. Low-energy singlet states of the obtained model are mapped to a quantum dimer model on a triangular lattice. The quantum dimer model is dominated by dimer resonances on a few shortest loops of the triangular lattice. Characteristic energy scale for the dimer model constitutes only a small fraction of the weaker exchange coupling constant.
Motivated by the absence of cooperative Jahn-Teller effect and of magnetic ordering in LiNiO$_2$, a layered oxide with triangular planes, we study a general spin-orbital model on the triangular lattice. A mean-field approach reveals the presence of several singlet phases between the SU(4) symmetric point and a ferromagnetic phase, a conclusion supported by exact diagonalizations of finite clusters. We argue that one of the phases, characterized by a large number of low-lying singlets associated to dimer coverings of the triangular lattice, could explain the properties of LiNiO$_2$, while a fer…
The phase diagram of the spin-1 chain with bilinear-biquadratic and next-nearest neighbor inter- actions, recently investigated by Pixley, Shashi and Nevidomskyy [Phys. Rev. B 90, 214426 (2014)], has been revisited in the light of results we have recently obtained on a similar model. Combining extensive Density Matrix Renormalization Group (DMRG) simulations with conformal-field theory arguments, we confirm the presence of the three phases identified by Pixley et al, a Haldane phase, a next-nearest neighbor (NNN) Haldane phase, and a dimerized phase, but we come to significantly different conc…
We study multilayer triangular lattice Ising antiferromagnets with interlayer interactions that are weak and frustrated in an abc stacking. By analysing a coupled height model description of these systems, we show that they exhibit a classical spin liquid regime at low temperature, in which both intralayer and interlayer correlations are strong but there is no long range order. Diffuse scattering in this regime is concentrated on a helix in reciprocal space, as observed for charge-ordering in the materials LuFe$_2$O$_4$ and YbFe$_2$O$_4$.
We map certain highly correlated electron systems on lattices with geometrical frustration in the motion of added particles or holes to the spatial defect-defect correlations of dimer models in different geometries. These models are studied analytically and numerically. We consider different coverings for four different lattices: square, honeycomb, triangular, and diamond. In the case of hard-core dimer covering, we verify the existed results for the square and triangular lattice and obtain new ones for the honeycomb and the diamond lattices while in the case of loop covering we obtain new num…
We consider a classical interacting dimer model which interpolates between the square lattice case and the triangular lattice case by tuning a chemical potential in the diagonal bonds. The interaction energy simply corresponds to the number of plaquettes with parallel dimers. Using transfer matrix calculations, we find in the anisotropic triangular case a succession of different physical phases as the interaction strength is increased: a short range disordered liquid dimer phase at low interactions, then a critical phase similar to the one found for the square lattice, and finally a transition…
In systems with many local degrees of freedom, high-symmetry points in the phase diagram can provide an important starting point for the investigation of their properties throughout the phase diagram. In systems with both spin and orbital (or valley) degrees of freedom such a starting point gives rise to SU(4)-symmetric models. Here we consider SU(4)-symmetric "spin" models, corresponding to Mott phases at half-filling, i.e. the six-dimensional representation of SU(4). This may be relevant to twisted multilayer graphene. In particular, we study the SU(4) antiferromagnetic "Heisenberg" model on…
We explicitly show that the Rokhsar-Kivelson dimer model on the triangular lattice is a liquid with topological order. Using the Pfaffian technique, we prove that the difference in local properties between the two topologically degenerate ground states on the cylinders and on the tori decreases exponentially with the system size. We compute the relevant correlation length and show that it equals the correlation length of the vison operator.
Frustration-driven unconventional magnetism in the Mn$^{2+}$ ($S=\frac{5}{2}$) based two-dimensional triangular-lattice antiferromagnet Ba$_{3}$MnTa$_{2}$O$_{9}$
We prove a "statistical transmutation" symmetry of doped quantum dimer models on the square, triangular and kagome lattices: the energy spectrum is invariant under a simultaneous change of statistics (i.e. bosonic into fermionic or vice-versa) of the holes and of the signs of all the dimer resonance loops. This exact transformation enables to define duality equivalence between doped quantum dimer Hamiltonians, and provides the analytic framework to analyze dynamical statistical transmutations. We investigate numerically the doping of the triangular quantum dimer model, with special focus on th…
The $120^0$ ordered antiferromagnetic state of the Hubbard model on a triangular lattice presents an interesting case of $U$-controlled competing interactions and frustration. The spin stiffness is found to vanish at $U^* _{\rm stiff} \approx 6$ and the spin-wave energy $ω_M$ at ${\bf q}_M=(2π/3,0)$ etc. is found to vanish at $U_M ^* \approx 6.8$ due to competing spin couplings generated at finite $U$. The loss of magnetic order due to the magnetic instability at ${\bf q}_M$ yields a first-order quantum phase transition in the insulating state at $U=U_{\rm M}^*$. Implications of the quantum sp…
We investigate quantum phase transitions in the three-dimensional orthogonal-dimer system of the compound $\rm SrCu_2(BO_3)_2$ by means of the series expansion technique. We then discuss the phase diagram where the dimer phase, the Haldane phase, the frustration-induced disordered phase and the magnetically ordered phase compete with each other. It is found that the compound $\rm SrCu_2(BO_3)_2$ is located in the dimer phase close to the phase boundary.
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…
We study the classical hard-core dimer model on the triangular lattice. Following Kasteleyn's fundamental theorem on planar graphs, this problem is soluble by Pfaffians. This model is particularly interesting for, unlike the dimer problems on the bipartite square and hexagonal lattices, its correlations are short ranged with a correlation length of less than one lattice constant. We compute the dimer-dimer and monomer-monomer correlators, and find that the model is deconfining: the monomer-monomer correlator falls off exponentially to a constant value sin(pi/12)/sqrt(3) = .1494..., only slight…
The weakly interacting S=1/2 dimers system Sr3Cr2O8 has been investigated by powder neutron diffraction and inelastic neutron scattering. Our data reveal a structural phase transition below room temperature corresponding to an antiferro-orbital ordering with nearly 90 degrees arrangement of the occupied 3z^2-r^2 d-orbital. This configuration leads to a drastic reduction of the inter-dimer exchange energies with respect to the high temperature orbital-disorder state, as shown by a spin-dimer analysis of the super-superexchange interactions performed using the Extended Huckel Tight Binding metho…
Han Purple (BaCuSi2O6) is not only an ancient pigment, but also a valuable model material for studying Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) of magnons in high magnetic fields. Using precise low-temperature structural data and extensive density-functional calculations, we elucidate magnetic couplings in this compound. The resulting magnetic model comprises two types of nonequivalent spin dimers, in excellent agreement with the (63,65)Cu nuclear magnetic resonance data. We further argue that leading interdimer couplings connect the upper site of one dimer to the bottom site of the contiguous dimer, …
Quantum dimer models are known to host topological quantum spin liquid phases, and it has recently become possible to simulate such models with Rydberg atoms trapped in arrays of optical tweezers. Here, we present large-scale quantum Monte Carlo simulation results on an extension of the triangular lattice quantum dimer model with terms in the Hamiltonian annihilating and creating single dimers. We find distinct odd and even $\mathbb{Z}_2$ spin liquids, along with several phases with no topological order: a staggered crystal, a nematic phase, and a trivial symmetric phase with no obvious broken…
We report on the emergence of antiferromagnetic spin chains from two-dimensionally aligned spins on the anisotropic triangular lattice (ATL) in the insulating calcium rhenium oxychloride Ca3ReO5Cl2. The compound contains Re6+ ions each with one unpaired electron in the dxy orbital, which are arranged to form a spin-1/2 ATL with J'/J ~ 0.32 and J = 41 K, where J and J' are magnetic interactions in and between the chains, respectively. In spite of the apparent two dimensionality, we observe clear evidence of a gapless spin liquid that is characteristic of the spin-1/2 Heisenberg chain. This one-…
The effect of a magnetic field on a gapped quantum magnet is described within the framework of the Quantum Dimer Model. A minimal model describing the proliferation of itinerant spinons above a critical field is proposed and investigated by Lanczos exact diagonalizations and quantum Monte Carlo simulations. For both square and triangular lattices, it is shown that spinons are fully polarized and Bose-condense. This offers a novel scenario of a Quantum Critical Point in the dimer-liquid phase (triangular lattice) characterized by the continuous appearance of a spinon superfluid density, contras…
To verify the effect of geometrical frustration, we artificially distort the triangular lattice of quasi-two-dimensional organic conductor $κ$-(BEDT-TTF)$_2$Cu$_2$(CN)$_3$ [BEDT-TTF: bis(ethylenedithio)terathiofulvalene] by analogous-molecular substitution and apply $^{13}$C NMR of bulk and substituted sites, electric conductivity, and static magnetic susceptibility measurements. The results indicate that the magnetic characteristics of the substituted sample are quantitatively similar to those of the pure sample. Moreover the magnetic characteristics at the substituted sites are also the same…
Quantum simulators based on cold atomic gases can provide an ideal platform to study the microscopic mechanisms behind intriguing properties of solid materials and further explore novel exotic phenomena inaccessible by chemical synthesis. Here we propose and theoretically analyze a coherently coupled binary mixture of Fermi atoms in a triangular optical lattice as a promising realization of synthetic frustrated antiferromagnets. We perform a cluster mean-field plus scaling analysis to show that the ground state exhibits several nontrivial magnetic phases and a novel spin reorientation transiti…
We report the first detailed investigation of K$_2$MnS$_2$ and K$_2$MnSe$_2$ from the K$_2$MnS$_2$ structure type and their magnetic solid solution K$_2$MnS$_{2-x}$Se$_x$ and find that compounds of this structure type consist of strongly-coupled pseudo-one-dimensional antiferromagnetic chains that collectively represent a frustrated two-dimensional triangular antiferromagnet. Bulk samples of K$_2$MnS$_{2-x}$Se$_x$ with $0 \leq x \leq 2$ are characterized using X-ray diffraction, neutron diffraction, magnetization and heat capacity measurements. An incommensurate cycloid magnetic structure with…
We investigate the Hubbard model on the anisotropic triangular lattice with two hopping parameters $t$ and $t^\prime$ in different spatial directions, interpolating between decoupled chains ($t=0$) and the isotropic triangular lattice ($t=t^\prime$). Variational wave functions that include both Jastrow and backflow terms are used to compare spin-liquid and magnetic phases with different pitch vectors describing both collinear and coplanar (spiral) order. For relatively large values of the on-site interaction $U/t^\prime \gtrsim 10$ and substantial frustration, i.e., $0.3\lesssim t/t^\prime \le…
