92 research outputs found
Evidence for an incommensurate magnetic resonance in La(2-x)Sr(x)CuO(4)
We study the effect of a magnetic field (applied along the c-axis) on the
low-energy, incommensurate magnetic fluctuations in superconducting
La(1.82)Sr(0.18)CuO(4). The incommensurate peaks at 9 meV, which in zero-field
were previously shown to sharpen in q on cooling below T_c [T. E. Mason et al.,
Phys. Rev. Lett. 77, 1604 (1996)], are found to broaden in q when a field of 10
T is applied. The applied field also causes scattered intensity to shift into
the spin gap. We point out that the response at 9 meV, though occurring at
incommensurate wave vectors, is comparable to the commensurate magnetic
resonance observed at higher energies in other cuprate superconductors.Comment: 8 pages, including 4 figure
Correlated decay of triplet excitations in the Shastry-Sutherland compound SrCu(BO)
The temperature dependence of the gapped triplet excitations (triplons) in
the 2D Shastry-Sutherland quantum magnet SrCu(BO) is studied by
means of inelastic neutron scattering. The excitation amplitude rapidly
decreases as a function of temperature while the integrated spectral weight can
be explained by an isolated dimer model up to 10~K. Analyzing this anomalous
spectral line-shape in terms of damped harmonic oscillators shows that the
observed damping is due to a two-component process: one component remains sharp
and resolution limited while the second broadens. We explain the underlying
mechanism through a simple yet quantitatively accurate model of correlated
decay of triplons: an excited triplon is long-lived if no thermally populated
triplons are near-by but decays quickly if there are. The phenomenon is a
direct consequence of frustration induced triplon localization in the
Shastry--Sutherland lattice.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Site dilution of quantum spins in the honeycomb lattice
We discuss the effect of site dilution on both the magnetization and the
density of states of quantum spins in the honeycomb lattice, described by the
antiferromagnetic Heisenberg spin-S model. For this purpose a real-space
Bogoliubov-Valatin transformation is used. In this work we show that for the
S>1/2 the system can be analyzed in terms of linear spin wave theory. For spin
S=1/2, however, the linear spin wave approximation breaks down. In this case,
we have studied the effect of dilution on the staggered magnetization using the
Stochastic Series Expansion Monte Carlo method. Two main results are to be
stressed from the Monte Carlo method: (i) a better value for the staggered
magnetization of the undiluted system, m=0.2677(6); (ii) a finite value of the
staggered magnetization of the percolating cluster at the classical percolation
threshold, showing that there is no quantum critical transition driven by
dilution in the Heisenberg model. In the solution of the problem using linear
the spin wave method we pay special attention to the presence of zero energy
modes. Using a combination of linear spin wave analysis and the recursion
method we were able to obtain the thermodynamic limit behavior of the density
of states for both the square and the honeycomb lattices. We have used both the
staggered magnetization and the density of states to analyze neutron scattering
experiments and Neel temperature measurements on quasi-two- -dimensional
honeycomb systems. Our results are in quantitative agreement with experimental
results on Mn_pZn_{1-p}PS_3 and on the Ba(Ni_pMg_{1-p})_2V_2O_8.Comment: 21 pages (REVTEX), 16 figure
Electromagnon dispersion probed by inelastic X-ray scattering in LiCrO2
Inelastic X-ray scattering with meV energy resolution (IXS) is an ideal tool to measure collective excitations in solids and liquids. In non-resonant scattering condition, the cross-section is strongly dominated by lattice vibrations (phonons). However, it is possible to probe additional degrees of freedom such as magnetic fluctuations that are strongly coupled to the phonons. The IXS spectrum of the coupled system contains not only the phonon dispersion but also the so far undetected magnetic correlation function. Here we report the observation of strong magnon-phonon coupling in LiCrO2 that enables the measurement of magnetic correlations throughout the Brillouin zone via IXS. We find electromagnon excitations and electric dipole active two-magnon excitations in the magnetically ordered phase and heavily damped electromagnons in the paramagnetic phase of LiCrO2. We predict that several (frustrated) magnets with dominant direct exchange and non-collinear magnetism show surprisingly large IXS cross-section for magnons and multi-magnon processes
Spin excitations in a single LaCuO layer
The dynamics of S=1/2 quantum spins on a 2D square lattice lie at the heart
of the mystery of the cuprates
\cite{Hayden2004,Vignolle2007,Li2010,LeTacon2011,Coldea2001,Headings2010,Braicovich2010}.
In bulk cuprates such as \LCO{}, the presence of a weak interlayer coupling
stabilizes 3D N\'{e}el order up to high temperatures. In a truly 2D system
however, thermal spin fluctuations melt long range order at any finite
temperature \cite{Mermin1966}. Further, quantum spin fluctuations transfer
magnetic spectral weight out of a well-defined magnon excitation into a
magnetic continuum, the nature of which remains controversial
\cite{Sandvik2001,Ho2001,Christensen2007,Headings2010}. Here, we measure the
spin response of \emph{isolated one-unit-cell thick layers} of \LCO{}. We show
that coherent magnons persist even in a single layer of \LCO{} despite the loss
of magnetic order, with no evidence for resonating valence bond (RVB)-like spin
correlations \cite{Anderson1987,Hsu1990,Christensen2007}. Thus these
excitations are well described by linear spin wave theory (LSWT). We also
observe a high-energy magnetic continuum in the isotropic magnetic response.
This high-energy continuum is not well described by 2 magnon LSWT, or indeed
any existing theories.Comment: Revised version to appear in Nature Materials; 6 pages,4 figure
Field-induced anisotropy in the quasi-two-dimensional weakly anisotropic antiferromagnet [CuCl(pyz)2]BF4
We measured NMR and magnetic susceptibility for the quasi-two-dimensional, weakly XY-like, spin-1/2 square-lattice Heisenberg antiferromagnet [CuCl(pyz)(2)]BF4 (pyz = pyrazine = N2C4H4) near the critical temperature. The Neel temperature T-N and the order-parameter critical exponent beta were obtained from the NMR line broadening as a function of temperature. As the applied field strength (H parallel to c) was increased, T-N increased and beta decreased. This behavior indicates that the field effectively enhanced XY anisotropy. The susceptibility as a function of temperature did not show a clear feature for T_N, but showed field-dependent minima below T_N for both H parallel to c and H parallel to ab, where minimum features disappeared for μH_0 > 2T
Spin gap evolution upon Ca doping in the spin ladder series by inelastic neutron scattering
The spin gap evolution upon Ca doping in Sr14-xCaxCu24O41 was systematically
investigated using inelastic neutron scattering. We discover that the
singlet-triplet spin gap excitation survives in this series with x up to 13,
indicating the singlet dimer ground state in these compounds. This observation
corrects the previous speculation that the spin gap collapses at x~13 by the
NMR technique. The strong intensity modulation along QH in x=0 gradually
evolves into a Q-independent feature in x>11. This could be attributed to the
localized Cu moment magnetism developing into an itinerant magnetism with
increasing x. It is a surprise that the spin gap persists in the normal state
of this spin ladder system with metallic behaviour, which evidences the
possibility of magnetically-mediated carrier pairing mechanism in a two-leg
spin ladder lattice.Comment: 17 pages, 6 figure
Imaging Oxygen Defects and their Motion at a Manganite Surface
Manganites are technologically important materials, used widely as solid
oxide fuel cell cathodes: they have also been shown to exhibit
electroresistance. Oxygen bulk diffusion and surface exchange processes are
critical for catalytic action, and numerous studies of manganites have linked
electroresistance to electrochemical oxygen migration. Direct imaging of
individual oxygen defects is needed to underpin understanding of these
important processes. It is not currently possible to collect the required
images in the bulk, but scanning tunnelling microscopy could provide such data
for surfaces. Here we show the first atomic resolution images of oxygen defects
at a manganite surface. Our experiments also reveal defect dynamics, including
oxygen adatom migration, vacancy-adatom recombination and adatom bistability.
Beyond providing an experimental basis for testing models describing the
microscopics of oxygen migration at transition metal oxide interfaces, our work
resolves the long-standing puzzle of why scanning tunnelling microscopy is more
challenging for layered manganites than for cuprates.Comment: 7 figure
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