Switching the Magnetization in Quantum Antiferromagnets

The orientation of the order parameter of quantum magnets can be used to store information in a dense and efficient way. Switching this order parameter corresponds to writing data. To understand how this can be done, we study a precessional reorientation of the sublattice magnetization in an (an)isotropic quantum antiferromagnet induced by an applied magnetic field. We use a description including the leading quantum and thermal fluctuations, namely Schwinger boson mean-field theory, because this theory allows us to describe both ordered phases and the phases in between them, as is crucial for switching. An activation energy has to be overcome requiring a minimum applied field $h_\text{t}$ which is given essentially by the spin gap. It can be reduced significantly for temperatures approaching the N\'eel temperature facilitating switching. The time required for switching diverges when the field approaches $h_\text{t}$ which is the signature of an inertia in the magnetization dynamics. The temporal evolution of the magnetization and of the energy reveals signs of dephasing. The switched state has lost a part of its coherence because the magnetic modes do not evolve in phase.Comment: 19 pages, 20 figure

Truncated Wigner approximation for the bosonic model of large spin baths

The central spin model has a wide applicability, it is ideally suited to describe a small quantum system, for instance a quantum bit, in contact to a bath of spins, e.g., nuclear spins, or other small quantum systems in general. According to previous work~[R\"ohrig \textit{et al.}, Phys. Rev. B {\bf 97}, 165431 (2018)], a large bath of quantum spins can be described as a bath of quantum harmonic oscillators. But the resulting quantum model is still far from being straightforward solvable. Hence we consider a chain representation for the bosonic degrees of freedom to study how well a truncated Wigner approximation of the effective model of harmonic oscillators works in comparison with other approximate and exact methods. Numerically, we examine the effect of the number of bath spins and of the truncation level, i.e., the chain length.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figure