Non-Collinear Magnetic Phases of a Triangular-Lattice Antiferromagnet and Doped CuFeO2_2

We obtain the non-collinear ground states of a triangular-lattice antiferromagnet with exchange interactions up to third nearest neighbors as a function of the single-ion anisotropy $D$. At a critical value of $D$, the collinear \uudd phase transforms into a complex non-collinear phase with odd-order harmonics of the fundamental ordering wavevector \vQ . The observed elastic peaks at 2\pi \vx -\vQ in both Al- and Ga- doped CuFeO$_2$ are explained by a "scalene" distortion of the triangular lattice produced by the repulsion of neighboring oxygen atoms.Comment: 4 pages 3 figures, accepted for publication by Phys. Rev. B Rapid communication

Gauge-Invariant Measure of the Magnon Orbital Angular Momentum

Unlike the Berry phase, the orbital angular momentum (OAM) of magnons with two-dimensional wavevector k in band n is not gauge invariant for arbitrary phase lambda_n(k). However, by integrating the OAM over the orientation $\phi$ of wavevector k, we construct a gauge-invariant function F_n(k). Like F_n(k), the average OAM for magnon band n in a circle of radius k is also gauge invariant. We demonstrate these results for a ferromagnet on a honeycomb lattice with Dzyalloshinskii-Moriya interactions between next-nearest neighbor spins. With wavevectors k restricted to the first Brillouin zone, the angular averaged OAM F_n(k) then has opposite signs for lower and upper bands n=1 and 2 for all k.Comment: 6 figure

Transition Temperature of a Magnetic Semiconductor with Angular Momentum j

We employ dynamical mean-field theory to identify the materials properties that optimize Tc for a generalized double-exchange (DE) model. We reach the surprising conclusion that Tc achieves a maximum when the band angular momentum j equals 3/2 and when the masses in the 1/2 and 3/2 sub-bands are equal. However, we also find that Tc is significantly reduced as the ratio of the masses decreases from one. Consequently, the search for dilute magnetic semiconductors (DMS) materials with high Tc should proceed on two fronts. In semiconductors with p bands, such as the currently studied Mn-doped Ge and GaAs semiconductors, Tc may be optimized by tuning the band masses through strain engineering or artificial nanostructures. On the other hand, semiconductors with s or d bands with nearly equal effective masses might prove to have higher Tc's than p-band materials with disparate effective masses.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure