2 research outputs found
Proposal for a [111] Magnetization Plateau in the Spin Liquid State of Tb2Ti2O7
Despite a Curie-Weiss temperature K, the Tb2Ti2O7
pyrochlore magnetic material lacks long range magnetic order down to at least
mK. It has recently been proposed that the low temperature
collective paramagnetic or spin liquid regime of this material may be akin to a
spin ice state subject to both thermal and quantum fluctuations a {\it
quantum spin ice} (QSI) of sorts. Here we explore the effect of a magnetic
field along the direction on the QSI state. To do so, we
investigate the magnetic properties of a microscopic model of Tb2Ti2O7 in an
independent tetrahedron approximation in a finite along . Such
a model describes semi-quantitatively the collective paramagnetic regime where
nontrivial spin correlations start to develop at the shortest lengthscale, that
is over a single tetrahedron, but where no long range order is yet present. Our
results show that a magnetization plateau develops at low temperatures as the
system develops ferromagnetic spin-ice-like "two-in/two-out"
correlations at the shortest lengthscale. From these results, we are led to
propose that the observation of such a [111] magnetization plateau in Tb2Ti2O7
would provide compelling evidence for a QSI at in this material and
help guide the development of a theory for the origin of its spin liquid state.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure