Benjamin Canals

PYROCHLORE ANTIFERROMAGNET : A THREE-DIMENSIONAL QUANTUM SPIN LIQUID

The quantum pyrochlore antiferromagnet is studied by perturbative expansions and exact diagonalization of small clusters. We find that the ground state is a spin-liquid state: The spin-spin correlation functions decay exponentially with distance and the correlation length never exceeds the interatomic distance. The calculated magnetic neutron diffraction cross section is in very good agreement with experiments performed on

Magnetic frustration in an iron-based Cairo pentagonal lattice.

\mathrm{Y}(\mathrm{Sc}){\mathrm{Mn}}_{2}

Dynamically induced frustration as a route to a quantum spin ice state in Tb2Ti2O7 via virtual crystal field excitations and quantum many-body effects.

. The low energy excitations are singlet-singlet ones, with a finite spin gap.

Ordering in the pyrochlore antiferromagnet due to Dzyaloshinsky-Moriya interactions

The Fe3+ lattice in the Bi2Fe4O9 compound is found to materialize the first analogue of a magnetic pentagonal lattice. Because of its odd number of bonds per elemental brick, this lattice, subject to first neighbor antiferromagnetic interactions, is prone to geometric frustration. The Bi2Fe4O9 magnetic properties have been investigated by macroscopic magnetic measurements and neutron diffraction. The observed noncollinear magnetic arrangement is related to the one stabilized on a perfect tiling as obtained from a mean field analysis with direct space magnetic configuration calculations. The peculiarity of this structure arises from the complex connectivity of the pentagonal lattice, a novel feature compared to the well-known case of triangle-based lattices.

Extensive degeneracy, Coulomb phase and magnetic monopoles in artificial square ice

The Tb2Ti2O7 pyrochlore magnetic material is attracting much attention for its spin liquid state, failing to develop long-range order down to 50 mK despite a Curie-Weiss temperature thetaCW approximately -14 K. In this Letter we reinvestigate the theoretical description of this material by considering a quantum model of independent tetrahedra to describe its low-temperature properties. The naturally tuned proximity of this system near a Néel to spin ice phase boundary allows for a resurgence of quantum fluctuation effects that lead to an important renormalization of its effective low-energy spin Hamiltonian. As a result, Tb2Ti2O7 is argued to be a quantum spin ice. We put forward an experimental test of this proposal using neutron scattering on a single crystal.

Spin-liquid correlations in the Nd-langasite anisotropic kagomé antiferromagnet.

The Heisenberg nearest neighbour antiferromagnet on the pyrochlore (3D) lattice is highly frustrated and does not order at low temperature where spin-spin correlations remain short ranged. Dzyaloshinsky-Moriya interactions (DMI) may be present in pyrochlore compounds as is shown, and the consequences of such interactions on the magnetic properties are investigated through mean field approximation and monte carlo simulations. It is found that DMI (if present) tremendously change the low temperature behaviour of the system. At a temperature of the order of the DMI a phase transition to a long range ordered state takes place. The ordered magnetic structures are explicited for the different possible DMI which are introduced on the basis of symmetry arguments. The relevance of such a scenario for pyrochlore compounds in which an ordered magnetic structure is observed experimentally is dicussed.

Anomalous Hall effect in a two-dimensional electron gas with spin-orbit interaction

Artificial spin-ice systems are lithographically patterned arrangements of interacting magnetic nanostructures that were introduced as way of investigating the effects of geometric frustration in a controlled manner. This approach has enabled unconventional states of matter to be visualized directly in real space, and has triggered research at the frontier between nanomagnetism, statistical thermodynamics and condensed matter physics. Despite efforts to create an artificial realization of the square-ice model—a two-dimensional geometrically frustrated spin-ice system defined on a square lattice—no simple geometry based on arrays of nanomagnets has successfully captured the macroscopically degenerate ground-state manifold of the model. Instead, square lattices of nanomagnets are characterized by a magnetically ordered ground state that consists of local loop configurations with alternating chirality. Here we show that all of the characteristics of the square-ice model are observed in an artificial square-ice system that consists of two sublattices of nanomagnets that are vertically separated by a small distance. The spin configurations we image after demagnetizing our arrays reveal unambiguous signatures of a Coulomb phase and algebraic spin-spin correlations, which are characterized by the presence of ‘pinch’ points in the associated magnetic structure factor. Local excitations—the classical analogues of magnetic monopoles—are free to evolve in an extensively degenerate, divergence-free vacuum. We thus provide a protocol that could be used to investigate collective magnetic phenomena, including Coulomb phases and the physics of ice-like materials.

Kondo Screening and Magnetic Ordering in Frustrated UNi4B.

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.

Magnetic ordering in Gd2Sn2O7 the archetypal Heisenberg pyrochlore antiferromagnet

We discuss the mechanism of anomalous Hall effect related to the contribution of electron states below the Fermi surface induced by the Berry phase in momentum space. Our main calculations are made within a model of two-dimensional electron gas with spin-orbit interaction of the Rashba type, taking into account the scattering from impurities. We demonstrate that such an “intrinsic” mechanism can dominate but there is a competition with the impurity-scattering mechanism, related to the contribution of states in the vicinity of the Fermi surface. We also show that the contribution to the Hall conductivity from electron states close to the Fermi surface has the intrinsic properties as well.

Magnetic frustration on a Kagomé lattice in R3Ga5SiO14 langasites with R = Nd, Pr

UNi{sub 4}B exhibits unusual properties and, in particular, a unique antiferromagnetic arrangement involving only 2/3 of the U sites. Based on the low temperature behavior of this compound, we propose that the remaining 1/3 U sites are nonmagnetic due to the Kondo effect. We derive amodel in which the coexistence of magnetic and nonmagnetic U sites is the consequence of the competition between frustration of the crystallographic structure and instability of the 5{ital f} moments. {copyright} {ital 1996 The American Physical Society.}