We report bulk magnetization, and elastic and inelastic neutron scattering measurements under an external magnetic field, $H$, on the weakly coupled distorted kagome system, Cu_{2}(OD)_3Cl. Our results show that the ordered state below 6.7 K is a canted antiferromagnet and consists of large antiferromagnetic $ac$-components and smaller ferromagnetic $b$-components. By first-principle calculations and linear spin wave analysis, we present a simple spin hamiltonian with non-uniform nearest neighbor exchange interactions resulting in a system of coupled spin trimers with a single-ion anisotropy that can qualitatively reproduce the spin dynamics of Cu_{2}(OD)_3Cl.
In this Letter, we identify a noncoplanar chiral spin texture on the distorted kagomé-lattice antiferromagnets induced by the presence of a magnetic field applied perpendicular to the distorted kagomé plane. The noncoplanar chiral spin texture has a nonzero scalar spin chirality similar to a chiral quantum spin liquid with broken time-reversal symmetry. In the noncoplanar regime we observe nontrivial topological magnetic excitations and thermal Hall response through the emergent field-induced scalar spin chirality in contrast to collinear ferromagnets in which the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya (DM) sp…
We study the Heisenberg model on the pinwheel distorted kagome lattice as observed in the material Rb_2Cu_3SnF_12. Experimentally relevant thermodynamic properties at finite temperatures are computed utilizing numerical linked-cluster expansions. We also develop a Lanczos-based, zero-temperature, numerical linked cluster expansion to study the approach of the pinwheel distorted lattice to the uniform kagome-lattice Heisenberg model. We find strong evidence for a phase transition before the uniform limit is reached, implying that the ground state of the kagome-lattice Heisenberg model is likely…
Motivated by recent experimental work on FeCrAs, we study the magnetic properties of classical spin models on the hexagonal Fe$_2$P/ZrNiAl structure (space group $P{\bar{6}}2m$). When both transition metal/rare earth sites carry magnetic moments, one has alternating distorted kagome and triangular lattice layers. Each point of the triangular lattice lies at the centre of a distorted hexagon and actually corresponds to three isolated magnetic atoms: a "trimer". We show that a simple model consisting of antiferromagnetically correlated Heisenberg spins on the frustrated distorted kagome lattice …
The magnetization and specific heat measurements have been performed on single-crystalline Gd_3_Ru_4_Al_12_ with a distorted Kagome lattice structure. This spin system is regarded as an antiferromagnetic triangular lattice of XY like Heisenberg model at low temperatures. The magnetic phase diagrams indicate the existence of frustration and Z_2_ degeneracy. The magnetization and specific heat imply the successive phase transitions with partial disorder and a T-shaped spin structure in the ground state.
High intensity pulsed neutron scattering reveals a new set of magnetic excitations in the pinwheel valence bond solid state of the distorted kagome lattice antiferromagnet Rb$_2$Cu$_3$SnF$_{12}$. The polarization of the dominant dispersive modes (2 meV $<\hbarω< $7 meV) is determined and found consistent with a dimer series expansion with strong Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions ($D/J=0.18$). A weakly dispersive mode near 5 meV and shifted "ghosts" of the main modes are attributed to the enlarged unit cell below a $T=215$ K structural transition. Continuum scattering between 8 meV and 10 meV …
We report 51V-NMR study on a high-quality powder sample of volborthite Cu3V2O7(OH)2/2H2O, a spin-1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnet on a distorted kagome lattice formed by isosceles triangles. In the magnetic fields below 4.5 T, a sharp peak in the nuclear spin-lattice relaxation rate 1/T1 accompanied with line broadening revealed a magnetic transition near 1 K. The low temperature phase shows anomalies such as a Lorentzian line shape, a 1/T1 propto T behavior indicating dense low energy excitations, and a large spin-echo decay rate 1/T2 pointing to unusually slow fluctuations. Another magnetic ph…
Motivated by a recent experiment on volborthite, a typical spin-$1/2$ antiferromagnet with a kagomé lattice structure, we study the magnetization process of a classical Heisenberg model on a spatially distorted kagomé lattice using the Monte Carlo (MC) method. We find a distortion-induced magnetization step at low temperatures and low magnetic fields. The magnitude of this step is given by $Δm_z=\left|1-α\right|/3α$ at zero temperature, where $α$ denotes the spatial anisotropy in exchange constants. The magnetization step signals a first-order transition at low temperatures, between two phases…
We report the local probe investigation of a frustrated antiferromagnet Pr$_3$BWO$_9$ with the distorted kagome lattice. Absence of magnetic order or spin freezing is indicated by the spectral analysis down to 0.3 K and specific heat measurements down to 0.09 K. The Knight shifts show an upturn behavior with the sample cooling down, which is further suppressed by external field. For the spin dynamics, gapped spin excitation is observed from the temperature dependence of spin-lattice relaxation rates, with the gap size proportional to the applied magnetic field intensity. Comparatively, an unex…
Zn-Paratacamite is a rare spin 1/2 antiferromagnetic insulator with an ideal kagome lattice structure in part of its phase diagram. As a function of Zn doping, this material undergoes a structural distortion which relieves the frustration and introduces magnetic order in the ground state, though the precise nature of the order is not clear at this point. In this paper, we present strong evidence for Neel ordering in the strongly distorted phase of Zn-Paratacamite through the application of quantum Monte-Carlo techniques. These numerical results support a recent Schwinger-boson mean field theor…
Strong metamagnetic switching and anisotropic magnetotransport in the distorted kagome magnet Tb6Ti4Al43
Indian Institute of Technology Delhi(印度理工学院德里分校);Max-Planck-Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids(马克斯·普朗克固体化学物理研究所);Department of Physics, Institute for Materials Research, Tohoku University(东北大学物质材料研究学院物理学系)
A brief review is provided of earlier work on the low temperature phases of $S=1$ kagome and triangular lattice antiferromagnets in which there is sufficiently strongly single-ion anisotropy $D$ that dominates over the antiferromagnetic exchange $J$.
Strain applied to a condensed-matter system can be used to engineer its excitation spectrum via artificial gauge fields, or it may tune the system through transitions between different phases. Here we demonstrate that strain tuning of the ground state of otherwise highly degenerate frustrated systems can induce novel phases, both ordered and disordered. For the classical Heisenberg antiferromagnet on the kagome lattice, we show that weak triaxial strain reduces the degeneracies of the system, leading to a classical spin liquid with non-coplanar configurations, while stronger strain drives the …
We report magnetic and electrical properties for single crystals of NdMn$_6$Sn$_6$ and SmMn$_6$Sn$_6$. They crystallize into a structure which has distorted, Mn-based kagome lattices, compared to the pristine kagome lattices in heavy-rare-earth-bearing RMn$_6$Sn$_6$ compounds. They are hightemperature ferromagnets of which the R moment is parallel with the Mn moment. We observed a large intrinsic anomalous Hall effect (AHE) that is comparable to the ferrimagnetic, heavy-R siblings in a wide range of temperature. We conclude that their intrinsic AHE is stemming from the Mn-based kagome lattice,…
We treat the ground state, elementary excitations, and neutron scattering cross section for a system of trimers consisting of three tightly bound spins 1/2 on a distorted Kagomé lattice, subject to isotropic nearest neighbor (usually antiferromagnetic) Heisenberg interactions. The interactions between trimers are assumed to be weak compared to the intra trimer interactions. We compare the spin-wave excitation spectrum of trimers with that obtained from standard spin-wave theory and attribute the differences at low energy to the fact that the trimer formulation includes exactly the effects of i…
We investigate the zero-temperature phase diagram of the nearest-neighbor kagome antiferromagnet in the presence of Dzyaloshinksii-Moriya interaction. We develop a theory for the transition between Z2 spin liquids with bosonic spinons and a phase with antiferromagnetic long-range order. Connections to recent numerical studies and experiments are discussed.
Magnetic and thermodynamic studies on the distorted kagome magnet Pr$_3$BWO$_9$
Kirchhoff Institute for Physics, Heidelberg University(海德堡大学基尔霍夫物理研究所);European XFEL(欧洲X射线自由电子激光设施);Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology Madras(马德拉斯印度理工学院物理系);Dresden High Magnetic Field Laboratory (HLD-EMFL), Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf(德累斯顿罗森多夫亥姆霍兹中心德累斯顿强磁场实验室);Quantum Centre of Excellence for Diamond and Emergent Materials, Indian Institute of Technology Madras(马德拉斯印度理工学院钻石与新兴材料卓越量子中心)
We have synthesized YbPdAs with the hexagonal ZrNiAl-type structure, in which the Yb-atoms form a distorted kagome sublattice in the hexagonal basal plane. Magnetic, transport, and thermodynamic measurements indicate that YbPdAs is a low-carrier Kondo lattice compound with an antiferromagnetic transition at $T_\mathrm{N}$ = 6.6 K, which is slightly suppressed in applied magnetic fields up to 9 T. The magnetic entropy at $T_\mathrm{N}$ recovers only 33\% of $R\ln{2}$, the full entropy of the ground state doublet of the Yb-ions. The resistivity displays a $-\ln T$ dependence between 30 and 15 K,…
The magnetization process of the isotropic Heisenberg antiferromagnet on the kagome lattice is studied. Data obtained from the numerical-diagonalization method are reexamined from the viewpoint of the derivative of the magnetization with respect to the magnetic field. We find that the behavior of the derivative at approximately one-third of the height of the magnetization saturation is markedly different from that for the cases of typical magnetization plateaux. The magnetization process of the kagome-lattice antiferromagnet reveals a new phenomenon, which we call the "magnetization ramp".
The ground state phase transition in the distorted S=1 kagomé Heisenberg antiferromagnet (KHAF) is studied by means of the perturbational calculation and numerical exact diagonalization method. For strong $\sqrt{3} \times \sqrt{3}$ lattice distortion, the hexgonal singlet solid (HSS) ground state of the uniform KHAF is destroyed and new singlet state, large HSS (LHSS) state, which is globally different from the HSS state is realized. The quantum phase transition between these two singlet states is analogous to the Haldane-dimer transition in the S=1 antiferromagnetic Heisenberg chain. The pres…
We study the ground state of a spin-half Heisenberg antiferromagnet on the stacked kagome lattice by using a spin-rotation-invariant Green's-function method. Since the pure two-dimensional kagome antiferromagnet is most likely a magnetically disordered quantum spin liquid, we investigate the question whether the coupling of kagome layers in a stacked three-dimensional system may lead to a magnetically ordered ground state. We present spin-spin correlation functions and correlation lengths. For comparison we apply also linear spin wave theory. Our results provide strong evidence that the system…
A clear thermal Hall signal ($κ_{xy}$) was observed in the spin liquid phase of the $S=1/2$ kagomé antiferromagnet Ca kapellasite (CaCu$_3$(OH)$_6$Cl$_2\cdot 0.6$H$_2$O). We found that $κ_{xy}$ is well reproduced, both qualitatively and quantitatively, using the Schwinger-boson mean-field theory with the Dzyaloshinskii--Moriya interaction of $D/J \sim 0.1$. In particular, $κ_{xy}$ values of Ca kapellasite and those of another kagomé antiferromagnet, volborthite, converge to one single curve in simulations modeled using Schwinger bosons, indicating a common temperature dependence of $κ_{xy}$ fo…
The magnetization process of the S=1 and 1/2 kagome Heisenberg antiferromagnet is studied by means of the numerical exact diagonalization method. It is found that the magnetization curve at zero temperature has a plateau at 1/3 of the full magnetization. In the presence of $\sqrt{3} \times \sqrt{3}$ lattice distortion, this plateau is enhanced and eventually the ferrimagnetic state is realized. There also appear the minor plateaux above the main plateau. The physical origin of these phenomena is discussed.
Successive magnetic phase transitions at $T_1$=17.5 K and $T_2$=18.5 K in Gd$_3$Ru$_4$Al$_{12}$, with a distorted kagome lattice of Gd ions, is studied using resonant X-ray diffraction with polarization analysis. It has been suggested that in this compound the $S=7/2$ spins on the nearest-neighbor Gd-triangle form a ferromagnetic trimer and the Gd lattice can be effectively considered as an antiferromagnetic triangular lattice of $S=21/2$ spin trimers [S. Nakamura et al., Phys. Rev. B 98, 054410 (2018)]. We show that the magnetic order in this system is described by an incommensurate wave vect…
Within the t-J model, we study the electronic properties of the doped antiferromagnet on the kagome lattice based on the framework of the self-consistent mean-field theory. At the half-filling, the spin-liquid ground-state energy per site of the kagome antiferromagnet is Eg/NJ=-0.859, which is in very good agreement with the numerical estimates. Away from the half-filling, the electron photoemission spectroscopy and density of states are discussed, and the results indicate that there is a gap in the normal-state of the system.
In the spirit of searching for Gd-based, frustrated, rare earth magnets, we have found antiferomagnetism (AF) in GdPtPb which crystallizes in the ZrNiAl-type structure that has a distorted Kagomé lattice of Gd-triangles. Single crystals were grown and investigated using structural, magnetic, transport and thermodynamic measurements. GdPtPb orders antiferromagnetically at 15.5 K arguably with a planar, non-collinear structure. The high temperature magnetic susceptibility data reveal an "anti-frustration" behavior having a frustration parameter, $|f|$ = $|Θ|$/ $T_N$ = 0.25, which can be explaine…
The frustration of antiferromagnetic interactions on the loosely connected kagome lattice associated to the enhancement of quantum fluctuations for S=1/2 spins was acknowledged long ago as a keypoint to stabilize novel ground states of magnetic matter. Only very recently, the model compound Herbersmithite, ZnCu3(OH)6Cl2, a structurally perfect kagome antiferromagnet, could be synthesized and enables a close comparison to theories. We review and classify various experimental results obtained over the past years and underline some of the pending issues.
Employing complementary torque magnetometry and electron spin resonance on single crystals of herbertsmithite, the closest realization to date of a quantum kagome antiferromagnet featuring a spin-liquid ground state, we provide novel insight into different contributions to its magnetism. At low temperatures, two distinct types of defects with different magnetic couplings to the kagome spins are found. Surprisingly, their magnetic response contradicts the three-fold symmetry of the ideal kagome lattice, suggesting the presence of a global structural distortion that may be related to the establi…
The layered compound with distorted Kagome nets, Dy3Ru4Al12, was previously reported to undergo antiferromagnetic ordering below (TN=) 7 K, based on investigations on single crystals. Here, we report the results of our investigation of ac and dc magnetic susceptibility (\c{hi}), isothermal remnant magnetization (MIRM), heat-capacity, magnetocaloric effect and magnetoresistance measurements on polycrystals. The present results reveal that there is an additional magnetic anomaly around 20 K, as though the Néel order is preceded by the formation of ferromagnetic clusters. We attribute this featur…
The recent NMR experiments on ZnCu3(OH)6Cl2 motivate our study of the effect of non- magnetic defects on the antiferromagnetic spin-1/2 kagome lattice. We use exact diagonalization methods to study the effect of two such defects on finite size systems. Our results, obtained without adjustable parameters, are in good quantitative agreement with recent Oxygen 17 NMR data. They provide support for the experimental interpretation of the presence of defects within the kagome layers due to Zn/Cu substitutions. Our results also show that disorder effects become relevant at lower temperatures, raising…
Competing Ordering Modes in the Distorted Quantum Kagome Material Clinoatacamite Cu$_2$Cl(OH)$_3$
Technische Universität Braunschweig(布伦瑞克工业大学);Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH(于利希有限公司研究中心);Okayama University(冈山大学);Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie GmbH(柏林亥姆霍兹材料与能源中心有限公司);Institut Laue-Langevin(朗之万研究所);Federal University of Parana(巴拉那联邦大学);Université Paris-Saclay(巴黎萨克雷大学);PSI Center for Neutron and Muon Sciences(瑞士保罗谢勒研究所中子与缪子科学中心)
We propose a general non-perturbative scheme that quantitatively maps the low-energy sector of spin-1/2 frustrated Heisenberg antiferromagnets to effective Generalized Quantum Dimer Models. We develop the formal lattice independent frame and establish some important results on (i) the locality of the generated Hamiltonians (ii) how full resummations can be performed in this renormalization scheme. The method is then applied to the much debated kagome antiferromagnet for which a fully resummed effective Hamiltonian - shown to capture the essential properties and provide deep insights on the mic…
Experimental studies of high-purity kagome-lattice antiferromagnets (KAFM) are of great importance in attempting to better understand the predicted enigmatic quantum spin-liquid ground state of the KAFM model. However, realizations of this model can rarely evade magnetic ordering at low temperatures due to various perturbations to its dominant isotropic exchange interactions. Such a situation is for example encountered due to sizable Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya magnetic anisotropy in YCu$_3$(OH)$_6$Cl$_3$, which stands out from other KAFM materials by its perfect crystal structure. We find evidence …
Herbertsmithite (ZnCu3(OH)6Cl2) is often discussed as the best realization of the highly frustrated antiferromagnetic kagome lattice known so far. We employ density functional theory calculations to determine eight exchange coupling constants of the underlying Heisenberg Hamiltonian. We find the nearest neighbour coupling J1 to exceed all other couplings by far. However, next-nearest neighbour kagome layer couplings of 0.019 J1 and interlayer couplings of up to -0.035 J1 slightly modify the perfect antiferromagnetic kagome Hamiltonian. Interestingly, the largest interlayer coupling is ferromag…
We argue that the S=1/2 kagome antiferromagnet undergoes a quantum phase transition when the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya coupling is increased. For $D<D_c$ the system is in a moment-free phase and for $D>D_c$ the system develops antiferromagnetic long-range order. The quantum critical point is found to be $D_c \simeq 0.1J$ using exact diagonalizations and finite-size scaling. This suggests that the kagome compound ZnCu$_3(OH)$_6$Cl$_3$ may be in a quantum critical region controlled by this fixed point.
We have studied the effect of the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction on kagome Heisenberg anti-ferromagnet using Schwinger boson mean field theory (SBMFT). Within SBMFT framework, Messio et al had argued that the ground state of kagome antiferromagnet is possibly a chiral topological spin liquid (Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 207204 (2012)). Thus, we have computed zero-temperature ground state phase diagram considering the time-reversal breaking states as well as fully symmetric Ansätze. We discuss the relevance of these results in experiments and other studies. Finally, we have computed the static and…
Dynamical magnetic correlations in the geometrically frustrated Nd$\_3$Ga$\_5$SiO$\_{14}$ compound were probed by inelastic neutron scattering on a single crystal. A scattering signal with a ring shape distribution in reciprocal space and unprecedented dispersive features was discovered. Comparison with calculated static magnetic scattering from models of correlated spins suggests that the observed phase is a spin liquid inherent to an antiferromagnetic kagomé-like lattice of anisotropic Nd moments.
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.
The ground state of the S=1/2 Heisenberg antiferomagnet on kagome can be viewed as a collection of fermionic spinons bound into small, heavy singlet pairs. Low-energy magnetic excitations in this system correspond to breaking the pairs into individual spinons. We calculate the structure factor for inelastic neutron scattering from independent spinon pairs.
We performed inelastic neutron scattering measurements on a polycrystalline sample of a classical kagome antiferromagnet NaBa$_{2}$Mn$_{3}$F$_{11}$ to investigate the possibility of a dispersionless zero-energy excitation associated with rotation of spins along the chains. The observed spectra indeed exhibit such an excitation with strong intensity at low energy, as well as dispersive excitations with weak intensity at high energy. Combining the measurements with calculations from linear spin-wave theory reveals that NaBa$_{2}$Mn$_{3}$F$_{11}$ is a good realization of the classical kagome anti…
The spin wave excitations of the ideal S=5/2 Kagome lattice antiferromagnet KFe3(OH)6(SO4)2 have been measured using high-resolution inelastic neutron scattering. We directly observe a flat mode which corresponds to a lifted "zero energy mode," verifying a fundamental prediction for the Kagome lattice. A simple Heisenberg spin Hamiltonian provides an excellent fit to our spin wave data. The antisymmetric Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction is the primary source of anisotropy and explains the low temperature magnetization and spin structure.
Motivated by recent experiments on ZnCu$_3$(OH)$_6$Cl$_2$, we study the inhomogeneous Knight shifts (local susceptibilities) of spin 1/2 Kagome antiferromagnet in the presence of nonmagnetic impurities. Using high temperature series expansion, we calculate the local susceptibility and its histogram down to about T=0.4J. At low temperatures, we explore a Dirac spin liquid proposal and calculate the local susceptibility in the mean field and beyond mean field using Gutzwiller projection, finding the overall picture to be consistent with the NMR experiments.
By using the density matrix renormalization group, we study the spin-liquid phases of spin-$1/2$ XXZ kagome antiferromagnets. We find that the emergence of spin liquid phase does not depend on the anisotropy of the XXZ interaction. In particular, the two extreme limits---Ising (strong $S^z$ interaction) and XY (zero $S^z$ interaction)---host the same spin-liquid phases as the isotropic Heisenberg model. Both the time-reversal-invariant spin liquid and the chiral spin liquid with spontaneous time-reversal symmetry breaking are obtained. We show they evolve continuously into each other by tuning…
We clarify the existence of several magnetization plateaux for the kagome $S=1/2$ antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model in a magnetic field. Using approximate or exact localized magnon eigenstates, we are able to describe in a similar manner the plateau states that occur for magnetization per site $m=1/3$, $5/9$, and $7/9$ of the saturation value. These results are confirmed using large-scale Exact Diagonalization on lattices up to 63 sites.
Spin dynamics of the spin-1/2 kagome lattice antiferromagnet Cs$_2$Cu$_3$SnF$_{12}$ was studied using high-resolution, time-of-flight inelastic neutron scattering. The flat mode, a characteristic of the frustrated kagome antiferromagnet, and the low-energy dispersive mode, which is dominated by magnons, can be well described by the linear spin-wave theory. However, the theory fails to describe three weakly dispersive modes between 9 and 14 meV. These modes could be attributed to two-spinon bound states, which decay into free spinons away from the zone center and at a high temperature, giving r…
The ground state phase transitions in the distorted S=1 kagome Heisenberg antiferromagnet (KHAF) with single-site anisotropy D are studied by the numerical exact diagonalization method. For strong easy plane anisotropy, the hexgonal singlet solid (HSS) ground state of the uniform KHAF is destroyed and large-D state is realized. The quantum phase transition between these two states is analogous to the Haldane-large-D transition in the S=1 antiferromagnetic Heisenberg chain. The combined effect of the sqrt(3) times sqrt(3) lattice distortion and single site anisotropy is also investigated. The g…
We study the quasi-one-dimensional limit of the spin-1/2 quantum Heisenberg antiferromagnet on the kagome lattice. The lattice is divided into antiferromagnetic spin-chains (exchange J) that are weakly coupled via intermediate "dangling" spins (exchange J'). Using one-dimensional bosonization, renormalization group methods, and current algebra techniques the ground state is determined in the limit J'<<J. We find that the dangling spins and chain spins form a spiral with O(1) and O(J'/J) static moments, respectively, atop of which the chain spins exhibit a smaller O[(J'/J)^2] antiferromagnetica…
We construct a phenomenological Z_2 lattice gauge theory to describe the spin-liquid state of the S=1/2 kagome Heisenberg antiferromagnet in the sector with zero total spin. The model is a natural generalization of the Misguich-Serban-Pasquier Hamiltonian with added interactions that are strongly constrained by lattice symmetries. We are able to reproduce qualitatively many of the characteristic features observed in recent numerical studies. We also make connections to the previous works along similar lines.
We report the crystal structure and unconventional magnetic ordering of Cs_2Cu_3CeF_{12}, which is composed of buckled kagome lattice of Cu^{2+} ions. The exchange network in the buckled kagome lattice is fairly anisotropic, so that the present spin system can be divided into two subsystems: alternating Heisenberg chains with strong antiferromagnetic exchange interactions and dangling spins. Although the direct exchange interactions between neighboring spins were found to be all antiferromagnetic, ferromagnetic magnetic ordering of the dangling spins was observed. Magnetization exhibits a plat…
The dc-magnetization of the unique S=1/2 kagome antiferromagnet Herbertsmithite has been measured down to 0.1K. No sign of spin freezing is observed in agreement with former muSR and ac-susceptibility results. The low temperature magnetic response is dominated by a defect contribution which exhibits a new energy scale $\simeq 1$ K, likely reflecting the coupling of the defects. The defect component is saturated at low temperature by H>8T applied magnetic fields which enables us to estimate an upper bound for the non saturated intrinsic kagome susceptibility at T=1.7K.
Spin-1/2 Heisenberg model on kagome lattice is a typical frustrated quantum spin system. A basic structure of kagome lattice is also present in kagome-strip lattice in one dimension, where a similar type of frustration is expected. We thus study the magnetization plateaus of the spin-1/2 Heisenberg model on a kagome-strip chain with three-independent antiferromagnetic exchange interactions by the density-matrix renormalization group method. In a certain range of exchange parameters, we find twelve kinds of magnetization plateaus, nine of which have magnetic structures breaking either translati…
Topological magnon insulators in insulating Kagomé ferromagnets have been extensively studied in a series of papers. It has been established that Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI) is the key ingredient to observe a nontrivial topological magnon with edge modes. However, insulating antiferromagnets on the Kagomé lattice are frustrated systems considered as a playground for studying quantum spin liquid physics. In these systems the DMI can induce a coplanar but noncollinear magnetic orders with a $\mathbf{q}=0$ propagating wavevector. We show that topological magnon bands are absent in thi…
The antiferromagnetism in $α$-Cu$_3$Mg(OH)$_6$Br$_2$ was studied by magnetic-susceptibility, specific-heat and neutron-diffraction measurements. The crystal structure consists of Cu$^{2+}$ kagome layers with Mg$^{2+}$ ions occupying the centers of the hexagons, separated by Br$^{1-}$ ions. The magnetic system orders antiferromagnetically at 5.4 K with the magnetic moments aligned ferromagnetically within the kagome planes. The ordered moment is 0.94 $μ_B$, suggesting little quantum and geometrical fluctuations. By comparing the magnetic and specific-heat properties with those of the haydeeite,…
We propose in this work an effective field theory description of the chiral spin liquid state in Heisenberg spin system on kagomé lattice.To this end, we derive the low-energy effective theory of kagomé (isotropic) Heisenberg antiferromagnet around its ordered ground states found numerically and show that quantum fluctuations induced by further neighbor spin exchanges are equally strong as those from first neighbor.We use a chiral order parameter theory to argue for the occurrence of finite temperature chiral symmetry breaking transition into chiral ordered state in kagomé antiferromagnet with…
Density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) calculations on large systems (up to 3096 spins) indicate that the ground state of the Heisenberg model on a 3-chain Kagome strip is spontaneously dimerized. This system has degenerate ground states and a gap to triplet and singlet excitations. These results are in direct contradiction with recent results of Azaria et al (Phys. Rev. Lett. 81, 1694 (1998)) and suggest a need for a reexamination of the underlying field theory.