The rare-earth magnet TmMgGaO$_{4}$ is proposed to be an intrinsic quantum Ising magnet described by the antiferromagnetic transverse field Ising model (TFIM) on a triangular lattice, where the relevant degrees of freedom are the non-degenerate dipole-multipole doublets of the Tm$^{3+}$ ions and the transverse field has an intrinsic origin from the weak splitting of the doublet. We compare this special doublet of Tm$^{3+}$ with the dipole-octupole Kramers doublet. We study the proposed effective model for the Tm-based triangular lattice and consider the effects of external magnetic fields and finite temperatures. From the "orthogonal operator approach", we show that the TFIM with the three-sublattice intertwined ordered state agrees with the experiments and further clarify the discrepancy in the nubmers of the magnetic sublattices and the measured magnon branches. We make specific predictions for the evolution of the magnetic properties with the external magnetic field. Furthermore, we demonstrate that an emergent U(1) symmetry emerges in thermal melting of the underlying orders and at the criticality, and summarize the previously known signatures related to the finite-temperature Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) physics. We discuss the broad relevance of intrinsic quantum Ising magnets to many other systems, especially the Tm-based materials.
The transverse-field Ising model on the triangular lattice is expected to host an intermediate finite-temperature Kosterlitz-Thouless (KT) phase through a mapping of the spins on each triangular unit to a complex order parameter. TmMgGaO$_4$ is a candidate material to realize such physics due to the non-Kramers nature of Tm$^{3+}$ ion and the resulting two-singlet single-ion ground state. Using inelastic neutron scattering, we confirm this picture by determining the leading parameters of the low-energy effective Hamiltonian of TmMgGaO$_4$. Subsequently, we track the predicted KT phase and rela…
A phase transition is often accompanied by the appearance of an order parameter and symmetry breaking. Certain magnetic materials exhibit exotic hidden-order phases, in which the order parameters are not directly accessible to conventional magnetic measurements. Thus, experimental identification and theoretical understanding of a hidden order are difficult. Here we combine neutron scattering and thermodynamic probes to study the newly discovered rare-earth triangular-lattice magnet TmMgGaO$_4$. Clear magnetic Bragg peaks at K points are observed in the elastic neutron diffraction measurements.…
Frustrated magnets host the promises of material realizations of new paradigm of quantum matter, while direct comparison of unbiased model calculations with experimental measurements is still very challenging. Here, we design and implement a protocol of employing many-body computation methodologies for accurate model calculation -- both equilibrium and dynamical properties -- of a frustrated rare-earth magnet TmMgGaO$_4$ (TMGO), which perfectly explains the corresponding experimental findings. Our results confirm TMGO is an ideal realization of triangular-lattice Ising model with an intrinsic …
Frustrated quasidoublets without time-reversal symmetry can host highly unconventional magnetic structures with continuously distributed order parameters even in a single-phase crystal. Here, we report the comprehensive thermodynamic and neutron diffraction investigation on the single crystal of TmMgGaO$_4$, which entails non-Kramers Tm$^{3+}$ ions arranged on a geometrically perfect triangular lattice. The crystal electric field (CEF) randomness caused by the site-mixing disorder of the nonmagnetic Mg$^{2+}$ and Ga$^{3+}$ ions, merges two lowest-lying CEF singlets of Tm$^{3+}$ into a ground-s…
Frustrated Ising magnets host exotic excitations, such as magnetic monopoles in spin ice. The ground state (GS) in this case is characterized by an extensive degeneracy and associated residual entropy going back to the pioneering work by G. Wannier who established large residual entropy of nearly 50%Rln2 per mole spins in a triangular Ising antiferromagnet (TIAF) already in 1950. Here, we endeavor to verify this result experimentally using TmMgGaO4, a novel rare-earth-based frustrated antiferromagnet with Ising spins arranged on a perfect triangular lattice. Contrary to theoretical expectation…
Residual entropy is a key feature associated with emergence in many-body systems. From a variety of frustrated magnets to the onset of spin-charge separation in Hubbard models and fermion-$Z_2$-flux variables in Kitaev models, the freezing of one set of degrees of freedom and establishment of local constraints are marked by a plateau in entropy as a function of temperature. Yet, with the exception of rare-earth pyrochlore family of spin-ice materials, evidence for such plateaus is rarely seen in real materials, raising questions about their robustness. Following recent experimental findings of…
We report thermodynamic and neutron scattering measurements of the triangular-lattice quantum Ising magnet TmMgGaO 4 in longitudinal magnetic fields. Our experiments reveal a quasi-plateau state induced by quantum fluctuations. This state exhibits an unconventional non-monotonic field and temperature dependence of the magnetic order and excitation gap. In the high field regime where the quantum fluctuations are largely suppressed, we observed a disordered state with coherent magnon-like excitations despite the suppression of the spin excitation intensity. Through detailed semi-classical calcul…
Motivated by the rapid experimental progress on the spin-orbit-coupled Mott insulators, we propose and study a generic spin model that describes the interaction between the non-Kramers doublets on a triangular lattice and is relevant for triangular lattice rare-earth magnets. We predict that the system supports both pure quadrupolar orders and intertwined multipolar orders in the phase diagram. Besides the multipolar orders, we explore the magnetic excitations to reveal the dynamic properties of the systems. Due to the peculiar properties of the non-Kramers doublets and the selective coupling …
Quantum Ising model on a triangular lattice hosts a finite temperature Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) phase with emergent U(1) symmetry, and it will transit into an up-up-down (UUD) phase with $C_3$ symmetry breaking upon an infinitesimal external field along the longitudinal direction, but the overall phase diagram spanned by the axes of external field and temperature remains opaque due to the lack of systematic invesitgations with controlled methodologies. By means of quantum Monte Carlo at finite temperature and ground state density matrix renormalization group simulations, we map ou…
Field-Induced Up-Up-Down State and Frustrated Magnetism in a Non-Kramers Triangular Antiferromagnet
Shenzhen Institute for Quantum Science and Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology（南方科技大学量子科学和工程研究院）；International Quantum Academy（国际量子学院）；Tsung-Dao Lee Institute, Shanghai Jiao Tong University（上海交通大学李政道研究所）；School of Physics and Astronomy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University（上海交通大学物理与天文学院）；School of Physics and Electronics, Henan University（河南大学物理与电子学院）
We apply the coupled cluster method and exact diagonalzation to study the uniform susceptibility and the ground-state magnetization curve of the triangular-lattice spin-1 Heisenberg antiferromagnet. Comparing our theoretical data for the magnetization curve with recent measurements on the s=1 triangular lattice antiferromagnet Ba3NiSb2O9 we find a very good agreement.
Using magnetic torque measurement on a NaNiO2 single crystal, we have established the magnetic phase diagram of this triangular compound. It presents 5 different phases depending on the temperature (4 K - 300 K) and magnetic field (0 - 22 T) revealing several spin reorientations coupled to different magnetic anisotropies.
We discuss magnetization curves of a toy-model trigonal and tetrahedral clusters. Nonlinearity of magnetization with local minimum of differential susceptibility resembling known magnetization plateaus of triangular-lattice and pyrochlore lattice antiferromagnets is observed at intermediate temperature range $ J\lesssim T\lesssimΘ$ (here $J$ is the exchange coupling constant and $Θ$ is a Curie-Weiss temperature). This behavior is due to increased statistical weight of the states with intermediate total spin of the cluster, which is related to the `order-by-disorder' mechanism of plateau stabil…
CuCrS2 is a triangular lattice Heisenberg antiferromagnet with a rhombohedral crystal structure. We report on neutron and synchrotron powder diffraction results which reveal a monoclinic lattice distortion at the magnetic transition and verify a magnetoelastic coupling. CuCrS2 is therefore an interesting material to study the influence of magnetism on the relief of geometrical frustration.
Magnetoelectric and magnetoelastic phenomena correlated with a phase transition into noncollinear magnetic phase have been investigated for single crystals of CuFeO2 with a frustrated triangular lattice. CuFeO2 exhibits several long-wavelength magnetic structures related to the spin frustration, and it is found that finite electric polarization, namely inversion symmetry breaking, occurs with noncollinear but not at collinear magnetic phases. This result demonstrates that the noncollinear spin structure is a key role to induce electric polarization, and suggests that frustrated magnets which o…
The temperature-magnetic-field phase diagram of the mixed honeycomb triangular lattice system K$_{2}$Mn$_{3}$(VO$_{4}$)$_{2}$CO$_{3}$ is investigated by means of magnetization, heat capacity and neutron scattering measurements. The results indicate that triangular and honeycomb magnetic layers undergo sequential magnetic orderings and act as nearly independent magnetic sublattices. The honeycomb sublattice orders at about 85 K in a Neél-type antiferromagnetic structure, while the triangular sublattice displays two consecutive ordered states at much lower temperatures, 3 K and 2.2 K. The ground…
In this study, we investigate the magnetic susceptibility, entropy, and isothermal magnetization curve of the spin-1/2 Heisenberg model on an anisotropic triangular lattice using the orthogonalized finite-temperature Lanczos method. In addition, we investigate the adiabatic magnetization curve and magnetocaloric effect. We estimate these physical quantities with sufficient accuracy in the thermodynamic limit, except at low temperatures. We observe a 1/3 magnetization plateau in the isothermal magnetization process, whereas the plateau is observed to have a slope in the adiabatic process. We sh…
A novel doubly chiral magnetic order is found out in the structurally chiral langasite compound Ba$_3$NbFe$_3$Si$_2$O$_{14}$. The magnetic moments are distributed over planar frustrated triangular lattices of triangle units. On each of these they form the same triangular configuration. This ferro-chiral arrangement is helically modulated from plane to plane. Unpolarized neutron scattering on a single crystal associated with spherical neutron polarimetry proved that a single triangular chirality together with a single helicity is stabilized in an enantiopure crystal. A mean field analysis allow…
We report the magnetic properties of compounds in the KBaRE(BO3)2 family (RE= Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb), materials with a planar triangular lattice composed of rare earth ions. The samples were analyzed by x-ray diffraction and crystallize in the space group R-3m. Physical property measurements indicate the compounds display predominantly antiferromagnetic interactions between spins without any signs of magnetic ordering above 1.8 K. The ideal 2D rare earth triangular layers in this structure type make it a potential model system for investigating magnetic frustration in rare-earth-b…
We report the results of magnetization and specific heat measurements on Ba$_3$NiSb$_2$O$_9$, which is a quasi-two-dimensional spin-1 triangular-lattice antiferromagnet. We observed a nonclassical magnetization plateau at one-third of the saturation magnetization that is driven by spin frustration and quantum fluctuation. Exact diagonalization for a 21-site rhombic cluster was performed to analyze the magnetization process. Experimental and calculated results agree well.
Multiple-$Q$ magnetic states often induce nontrivial topological spin textures, such as a skyrmion and a hedgehog. We theoretically investigate yet another multiple-$Q$ state with topological defects, a meron-antimeron crystal (MAX), represented by a periodic array of the meron and antimeron with a half-integer skyrmion number. Performing simulated annealing for an effective spin model of noncentrosymmetric itinerant magnets on a triangular lattice, we show that rectangular-shaped and triangular-shaped MAXs are stabilized by the interplay between the biquadratic interaction arising from the sp…
Yb-based triangular magnets have recently attracted attention as promising candidates to explore frustrated quantum magnetism. However, some candidates have turned out to have significant amounts of site disorder, which significantly affects the low-temperature magnetic behavior. To overcome this issue, Yb-based frustrated systems without structural disorder are required. In this paper, we report physical properties of two Yb-based triangular magnets Ba3YbB3O9 and Ba3YbB9O18, without structural disorder. Via magnetic susceptibility, magnetization, and muon spin rotation measurements, we verifi…
We report a detailed study of the magnetic properties of KBaGd(BO$_3$)$_2$, in which magnetic Gd$^{3+}$ ($S=7/2$) ions form into two-dimensional triangular layers. Magnetization, specific heat and magnetocaloric effect (MCE) measurements have been performed on KBaGd(BO$_3$)$_2$ single crystals. The results show that a long-range antiferromagnetic state is established below $T_{\rm N}=0.24$ K. In zero fields, only about half of the full entropy is released at $T_{\rm N}$, indicating that not all the magnetic moments are frozen below the ordering temperature, as expected from the geometrical fru…
We investigate the anisotropic triangular lattice that interpolates from decoupled one-dimensional chains to the isotropic triangular lattice and has been suggested to be relevant for various quasi-two-dimensional materials, such as Cs$_2$CuCl$_4$ or $κ$-(ET)$_2$Cu$_2$(CN)$_3$, an organic material that shows intriguing magnetic properties. We obtain an excellent accuracy by means of a novel representation for the resonating valence bond wave function with both singlet and triplet pairing. This approach allows us to establish that the magnetic order is rapidly destroyed away from the pure trian…
The magnetic phases of a triangular-lattice antiferromagnet, CuCrO$_2$, were investigated in magnetic fields along to the $c$ axis, $H$ // [001], up to 120 T. Faraday rotation and magneto-absorption spectroscopy were used to unveil the rich physics of magnetic phases. An up-up-down (UUD) magnetic structure phase was observed around 90--105 T at temperatures around 10 K. Additional distinct anomalies adjacent to the UUD phase were uncovered and the Y-shaped and the V-shaped phases are proposed to be viable candidates. These ordered phases are emerged as a result of the interplay of geometrical …
We have carried out $^{63,65}$Cu NMR spectra measurements in magnetic field up to about 45~T on single crystal of a multiferroic triangular antiferromagnet CuCrO$_2$. The measurements were performed for magnetic fields aligned along the crystal $c$-axis. Field and temperature evolution of the spectral shape demonstrates a number of phase transitions. It was found that the 3D magnetic ordering takes place in the low field range ($H\lesssim15$~T). At higher fields magnetic structures form within individual triangular planes whereas the spin directions of the magnetic ions from neighboring planes…
We have investigated spin-wave excitations in a magnetic-field-induced 1/5-magnetization plateau phase in a triangular lattice antiferromagnet CuFeO2 (CFO), by means of inelastic neutron scattering measurements under applied magnetic fields of up to 13.4 T. Comparing the observed spectra with the calculations in which spin-lattice coupling effects for the nearest neighbor exchange interactions are taken into account, we have determined the Hamiltonian parameters in the field-induced 1/5- plateau phase, which directly show that CFO exhibits a bond order associated with the magnetic structure in…
We study the magnetization process of the spin-1/2 antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model on a layered triangular lattice by means of a numerical cluster mean-field method with a scaling scheme (CMF+S). It has been known that antiferromagnetic spins on a two-dimensional (2D) triangular lattice with quantum fluctuations exhibit a one-third magnetization plateau in the magnetization curve under magnetic field. We demonstrate that the CMF+S quantitatively reproduces the magnetization curve including the stabilization of the plateau. {We also discuss the effects of a finite interlayer coupling, which …
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$_7$.
Ground state properties of spinless, extended Falicov-Kimball model (FKM) on a finite size triangular lattice with orbital magnetic field normal to the lattice are studied using numerical diagonalization and Monte-Carlo simulation methods. We show that the ground state configurations of localized electrons strongly depend on the magnetic field. Magnetic field induces a metal to insulator transition accompanied by segregated phase to an ordered regular phase except at density $n_f = 1/2$ of localized electrons. It is proposed that magnetic field can be used as a new tool to produce segregated p…
We investigate the possible regular magnetic order (RMO) for the spin models with global O(3) spin rotation, based on a group theoretical approach for triangular and kagome lattices. The main reason to study these RMOs is that they are good variational candidates for the ground states of many specific models. In this work, we followed the prescription introduced by Messio et al. (L. Messio, C. Lhuillier, and G. Misguich, Phys. Rev. B, 2011, 83, 184401) for the p6m group and extended their work for different subgroups of p6m, i.e., p6, p3, p3m1, and p31m. We have listed all the possible regular…
Elementary quasiparticles in solids such as phonons and magnons occasionally have nontrivial interactions between them, as well as among themselves. As a result, their energy eigenvalues are renormalized, the quasiparticles spontaneously decay into a multi-particle continuum state, or they are hybridized with each other when their energies are close. As discussed in this review, such anomalous features can appear dominantly in quantum magnets but are not, a priori, negligible for magnetic systems with larger spin values and noncollinear magnetic structures. We review the unconventional magneti…
Results of magnetization and neutron diffraction measurements of the manganese vanadate system Mn$_5$(VO$_4$)$_2$(OH)$_4$ are reported. The crystal structure of this compound contains triangular [Mn$_3$O$_{13}$] building blocks that produce two-dimensional Mn$^{2+}$ magnetic networks with striped triangular topologies. The Mn sheets are connected through the nonmagnetic vanadate tetrahedra extending along the $a$-axis. Magnetization measurements performed on single crystals reveal the onset of a long-range antiferromagnetic order below approximately 45 K. The magnetic structure is Néel-type wi…
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…
Ferroelectric properties in magnetic fields of varying magnitude and direction have been investigated for a triangular-lattice helimagnet CuFe1-xGaxO2 (x=0.035). The magnetoelectric phase diagrams were deduced for magnetic fields along [001], [110], and [1-10] direction, and the in-plane magnetic field was found to induce the rearrangement of six possible multiferroic domains. Upon every 60-degree rotation of in-plane magnetic field around the c-axis, unique 120-degree flop of electric polarization occurs as a result of the switch of helical magnetic q-vector. The chirality of spin helix is al…
Zero-field muon-spin relaxation measurements of the frustrated triangular quantum magnet AgNiO2 are consistent with a model of charge disproportionation that has been advanced to explain the structural and magnetic properties of this compound. Below an ordering temperature of T_N=19.9(2) K we observe six distinct muon precession frequencies, due to the magnetic order, which can be accounted for with a model describing the probable muon sites. The precession frequencies show an unusual temperature evolution which is suggestive of the separate evolution of two opposing magnetic sublattices.
We report the results of magnetization and specific heat measurements on Ba$_3$CoSb$_2$O$_9$, in which the magnetic Co$^{2+}$ ion has a fictitious spin-1/2, and show evidence that a spin-1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnet on a regular triangular lattice is actually realized in Ba$_3$CoSb$_2$O$_9$. We found that the entire magnetization curve including the one-third quantum magnetization plateau is in excellent agreement with theoretical calculations at a quantitative level.
Neutron diffraction studies have been carried out in the temperature(T) range between 10 K and 130 K on a single crystal of YBaCo4O7, which has the stacking of kagome and triangular lattices of CoO4 tetrahedra along the c-axis. Structural transitions have been found at two temperatures Tc1~70 K and Tc2~105 K. With decreasing T, magnetic order appears along with the transition at Tc2, but it does not grow to an ideal long-range order even at the lowest T studied (~10 K). Two groups of magnetic diffuse reflections, which originate from the Co-moments of the kagome and triangular lattices, are ob…
Motivated by the importance of non-collinear and non-coplanar magnetic phases in determining various electrical properties of magnetic materials, we investigate the phase diagrams of the extended Hubbard model on anisotropic triangular lattice. We make use of a mean-field scheme that treats collinear, non-collinear and non-coplanar phases on equal footing. In addition to the ferromagnetic and 120° antiferromagnetic phases, we find the four-sublattice flux, the 3Q non-coplanar and the non-collinear charge-ordered states to be stable at specific values of filling fraction $n$. Inter-site Coulomb…
Ba3IrTi2O9 crystallizes in a hexagonal structure consisting of a layered triangular arrangement of Ir4+ (Jeff=1/2). Magnetic susceptibility and heat capacity data show no magnetic ordering down to 0.35K inspite of a strong magnetic coupling as evidenced by a large Curie-Weiss temperature=-130K. The magnetic heat capacity follows a power law at low temperature. Our measurements suggest that Ba3IrTi2O9 is a 5d, Ir-based (Jeff=1/2), quantum spin liquid on a 2D triangular lattice.
The anisotropic triangular lattice of the crednerite system Cu(Mn1-xCux)O2 is used as a basic model for studying the influence of spin disorder on the ground state properties of a two-dimensional frustrated antiferromagnet. Neutron diffraction measurements show that the undoped phase (x=0) undergoes a transition to antiferromagnetic long-range order that is stabilized by a frustration-relieving structural distortion. Small deviation from the stoichiometric composition alters the magnetoelastic characteristics and reduces the effective dimensionality of the magnetic lattice. Upon increasing the…
We uncover four new spin-charge ordered ground states in the strong coupling limit of the Kondo lattice model on triangular geometry. Two of the states at one-third electronic filling ($n=1/3$) consist of decorated ferromagnetic chains coupled antiferromagnetically with the neighboring chains. The third magnetic ground state is noncollinear, consisting of antiferromagnetic chains separated by a pair of canted ferromagnetic chains. An even more unusual magnetic ground state, a variant of the $120^{\circ}$ Yafet-Kittel phase, is discovered at $n=2/3$. These magnetic orders are stabilized by open…
RbFe(MoO4)2 is a rare example of a nearly two-dimensional Heisenberg antiferromagnet on a triangular lattice. Magnetic resonance spectra and magnetization curves reveal that the system has a layered spin structure with six magnetic sublattices. The sublattices within a layer are arranged in a triangular manner with the magnetization vectors 120 degree apart. The H-T phase diagram, containing at least five different magnetic phases is constructed. In zero field, RbFe(MoO4)2 undergoes a phase transition at T_N=3.8 K into a non-collinear triangular spin structure with all the spins confined in th…
We study magnetic and charge susceptibilities in the half-filled two-dimensional triangular Hubbard model within the dual fermion approximation in the metallic, Mott insulating, and crossover regions of parameter space. In the \textcolor{black}{insulating state}, we find strong spin fluctuations at the K point at low energy corresponding to the \textcolor{black}{120$^{\circ}$} antiferromagnetic order. These spin fluctuations persist into the metallic phase and move to higher energy. We also present data for simulated neutron spectroscopy and \textcolor{black}{spin-lattice} relaxation times, an…
Very often the skyrmions form a triangular crystal in chiral magnets. Here we study the effect of itinerant electrons on the structure of skyrmion crystal (SkX) on triangular lattice using Kondo lattice model in the large coupling limit and treating the localized spins as classical vectors. To simulate the system, we employ hybrid Markov Chain Monte Carlo method (hMCMC) which includes electron diagonalization in each MCMC update for classical spins. We present the low temperature results for $12\times 12$ system at electron density $n=1/3$ which show a sudden jump in skyrmion number when we in…
This paper examines the relation between the spin-wave instabilities of collinear magnetic phases and the resulting non-collinear phases for a geometrically-frustrated triangular-lattice antiferromagnet in the high spin limit. Using a combination of phenomenological and Monte-Carlo techniques, we demonstrate that the instability wave-vector with the strongest intensity in the collinear phase determines the wave-vector of a cycloid or the dominant elastic peak of a more complex non-collinear phase. Our results are related to the observed multi-ferroic phase of Al-doped CuFeO$_2$.
Motivated by recent progress on quantum engineered Kondo lattices, we numerically investigated the local magnetic properties of a hexagonal Anderson droplet consisting of multiple rings of magnetic atoms periodically arrayed on a triangular lattice. We demonstrated the tunability of the magnetic properties via their evolution with the droplet geometry for two types of systems with distinct local orbital occupancy profile. We found that the local susceptibility of the droplet center of some types of droplets can be remarkably enhanced in contrast to the conventionally rapid decrease due to spin…
We report the crystal structure of Ba$_2$La$_2$CoTe$_2$O$_{12}$ determined by Rietveld analysis using X-ray powder diffraction data. It was found from magnetic measurements that Ba$_2$La$_2$CoTe$_2$O$_{12}$ can be described as a spin-1\2 triangular-lattice antiferromagnet with easy-plane anisotropy at low temperatures. This compound undergoes a magnetic phase transition at $T_{\rm N}\,{=}\,3.26$ K to an ordered state with the $120^{\circ}$ structure. The magnetization curve exhibits the one-third plateau characteristic of triangular-lattice quantum antiferromagnets. The antiferromagnetic excha…
We study the spin wave in the S=1/2 multiple-spin exchange model on a triangular lattice in a magnetic field within the linear spin-wave theory. We take only two-, three- and four-spin exchange interactions into account and restrict ourselves to the region where a coplanar three-sublattice state is the mean-field ground state. We found that the Y-shape ground state survives quantum fluctuations and the phase transition to a phase with a 6-sublattice structure occurs with softening of the spin wave. We estimated the quantum corrections to the ground state sublattice magnetizations due to zero-p…
We report the results of low-temperature thermal and magnetic measurements on Ba$_3$CoNb$_2$O$_9$ powder, described as a uniform triangular-lattice antiferromagnet (TLAF) with a fictitious spin-1/2. Ba$_3$CoNb$_2$O$_9$ is found to undergo two-step antiferromagnetic transitions at $T_{\rm N1}=1.39~{\rm K}$ and $T_{\rm N2}=1.13~{\rm K}$. As the magnetic field is increased, both $T_{\rm N1}$ and $T_{\rm N2}$ monotonically decrease. The magnetic field vs temperature phase diagram indicates that the exchange interactions are nearly of the Heisenberg type with weak easy-axis anisotropy and that the …
The spin Green's function of the antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model on a triangular lattice is calculated using Mori's projection operator technique. At T=0 the spin excitation spectrum is shown to have gaps at the wave vectors of the classical Neel ordering. This points to the absence of the antiferromagnetic long-range order in the ground state. The calculated spin correlation on the neighboring sites of the same sublattice is in good agreement with the value derived from exact diagonalization. The temperature dependencies of the spin correlations and the gaps are calculated.
We succeeded in observing pressure-suppressed magnetic long range ordering (LRO) in the triangular lattice antiferromagnet CuFeO$_{2}$, using neutron diffraction experiments under an isotropic pressure. The magnetic LRO of the four-sublattice ground state under ambient pressure in CuFeO$_{2}$ almost disappears at the high pressure of 7.9 GPa, and is replaced by an incommensurate order with temperature-independent wave number of (0.192 0.192 1.5). The incommensurate wave number observed at 7.9 GPa corresponds to that observed just above the temperature at which lattice distortion and magnetic L…
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…
A molecular Mott insulator $κ$-(ET)$_2$B(CN)$_4$ [ET = bis(ethylenedithio)tetrathiafulvalene] with a distorted triangular lattice exhibits a quantum disordered state with gapped spin excitation in the ground state. $^{13}$C nuclear magnetic resonance, magnetization, and magnetic torque measurements reveal that magnetic field suppresses valence bond order and induces long-range magnetic order above a critical field $\sim 8$ T. The nuclear spin-lattice relaxation rate $1/T_1$ shows persistent evolution of antiferromagnetic correlation above the transition temperature, highlighting a quantum spin…
α-SrCr2O4 has a triangular planar lattice of d3 Cr3+ made from edge sharing CrO6 octahedra; the plane shows a very small orthorhombic distortion from hexagonal symmetry. With a Weiss temperature of -596 K and a three-dimensional magnetic ordering temperature of 43 K, the magnetic system is quasi two-dimensional and frustrated. Neutron powder diffraction shows that the ordered state is an incommensurate helical magnet, with an in-plane propagation vector of k = (0,0.3217(8),0). Temperature dependent synchrotron powder diffraction characterization of the structure shows an increase in the inter-…
