Kagome Lattice Antiferromagnets

RRP Singh M. Rigol D. Huse UC DAVIS Georgetown Univ. Princeton Univ.

PRL 2007 and cond-mat 2007

Motivation
Frustration is a key concept in studying complex systems
Magnetism, Glasses, Protein-folding, ..

Competing Tendencies can be resolved in many wayscompeting phases New Physics emerges from this competition Challenge to Computational Methods

Triangular-Kagome Lattice Magnets

Triangular-Lattice: Edge sharing triangles
Kagome-Lattice: Corner sharing triangles

Site-depletion makes Kagome-Lattice more frustrated

Classic example of Frustration Ising Model

?

A Triangle: 6 out of 8 states are ground states) uud udu duu udd dud ddu have same energy uuu ddd have higher energy Lattice Models are Exactly Soluble TLM: Ground State Entropy (T=0 critical point) KLM: Ground State Entropy ( finite correlation length at T=0)

Classical Heisenberg Models

Ground state has 120 degree structure TLM: Unique Ground State (apart from symmetry) (Fully Constrained) KLM: Finite ground state entropy (see TLM) (Underconstrained) Order by Disorder

TLM

Q=0

Quantum Heisenberg Model

Spin is a good quantum number Pair of spins like to form rotaionally invariant singlets entangled state

Many Open Questions

Is Ground state magnetically ordered? SSB Is the ground state a VBC? Is there a Quantum Spin-Liquid? RVB Is there a spin-gap? Is there algebraic spin order? Are there fractional-spin excitations? FQHE Are there massless Dirac spinons?

Magnetic Long Range Order

Many Candidates
TLM [root(3)by root(3)] Q=0 Doubled Unit Cell along Y Answer is NO

Spectra from exact diagonalization Series expansions Other numerics

Is there a VBC?: SU(N) Large N: Many Possibilities Here Too Large N: Max-Perfect Hexagons
Marston Zeng Nikolic Senthil 36-site unit cell Honeycomb Stripes

Dimer Expansion for spin-half

Empty Triangles are Key The rest are in local ground state

Kagome Lattice

Shastry-Sutherland Lattice

Series Expansion around arbitrary Dimer Configuration

Graphs defined by triangles All graphs to 5th order

Degeneracy Lifts in 3rd/4th Order But Not Completely

3rd Order: Bind 3Es into H 4th Order: Honeycomb over Stripe Leftover: Pinwheels 2^(N/36) Low energy states

Series show excellent Convergence

Order & 0 & 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 5 & Honeycomb & Stripe VBC -0.375 & -0.375 -0.375 & -0.375 -0.421875 & -0.421875 -0.42578125 & -0.42578125 -0.431559245 & -0.43101671 -0.432088216 & -0.43153212 & & & & & & & 36-site PBC -0.375 -0.375 -0.421875 -0.42578125 -0.43400065 -0.43624539 \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\

Ground State Energy per site Estimated H-VBC energy: -0.433(1)

36-site PBC: Energy=-0.43837653

36-site PBC too many wraps New graphs start contributing in 4th order Closed Loops of 4 triangles

Exact Diagonalization
Lhuillier et al: (E=-0.43--0.44) Gap of J/20 or less, maybe 0 (No VBC?) Gap for upto 36-site extrapolated by 1/N Significant spread with size Very little triplet dispersion May be indicative of exotic state! (Why so many singlets below lowest triplet?) VBC provides an explanation

Spin-gap is zero or small? Exact Diagonalization upto 36-site

Most robust message From finite clusters Lots of singlets below triplet

Can we calculate the spin spectra 18 by 18 matrix

Left for Future work

Experimental Status
New material: Herbertsmithite ZnCu_3(OH)_6Cl_2
Cu atoms carry spinhalf Kagome-layers of Cu Separated by layers of Zn

Some experimental properties

Curie-Weiss T=300K No LRO down to 50mK BUT Susceptibility turns up at low T Helton et al PRL Ofer et al cond-mat

Specifc heat sublinear at low-T

Is the upturn due to impurity?

Rigol+ RRPS

Misguich+sindzingre

But muSR tracks bulk susceptibility suggests it is intrinsic!

Interesting Crossover (Classical Dimer Liquid)

Dzyloshinski-Moria Interactions Cross Product between spins

Both Dz and Dp are allowed! (Of order 10% of J in related Fe-based spin-5/2 material)

Clusters for finite-size studies with Periodic Boundary Conditions

Susceptibility with Dp and Dz

XY ORDER

CANTING

Entropy

Misguich and Sinzindgre

Lowering of entropy due to DM Interactions

DM Interactions Finite-T conclusions

D_z: Reduces entropy, reduces isotropic susceptibilityLeads to long-range XY order (each sign favors one chirality)-----cant be the answer D_p No change in entropy, increases susceptibility suddenly, makes it highly anisotropiccould be the answer induced Ising anisotropy Must have D_p greater than D_z to match with experiments

Conclusion for the Material

DM Interactions with Dp>Dz present. Impurities also present but not simple additivemust be embedded DM+Impurities+Dilution (stoichiometry requires Zn/Cu to substitute each other) Single Crystals can measure anisotropy

Summary and Conclusions

Kagome Lattice appears to have a VBC ground state (Debate is not over) Spectra and spin-gap calculations are essential to further understand it DM interactions are allowed- Will be there only magnitudes can vary Maybe optical Lattices can be DM free

Future Directions: Pyrochlore Lattice

Corner Sharing Tetrahedra From perfect hexagons to super-tetrahedra (Large-N also Dimer expansions for S=1/2)

THE END

Phase Diagram of some organic materials

Striking Spectra of Cs2CuCl4

Shastry-Sutherland Lattice

Exact singlet GS with no broken symmetry No Fluidity

Fluidity: Isolated spin-half objects must be free to flow Deconfinement is the key property

May (must) have Topological Degeneracies

Spin-Liquids in 1D (Special Case)

1D QHM has a spinliquid ground state As does the Majumdar-Ghosh Model
Heisenberg Ising MG model

Dip in Spin-Wave spectra at (pi,0)

Square-Lattice

With Frustration

Spectra of TLM

Anisotropic Triangular-Lattice

Layered Molecular Crystals (Shimizu et al)

J=250K (TLM)

Zheng et al

Gapless Spin-Liquid? Projected (Spinon) Fermi Liquid?

Dip is absent in the Cuprates

Scaled (Parameter Free Plots)

Anisotropy Parameter

Elstner, Singh, Young JAP 1993