Submillimeter Wave ESR Study of Spin Gap Excitations in CuGeO3

Transitions between the ground singlet state to the excited triplet state has been observed in CuGeO3 by means of submillimeter wave electron spin resonance. The strong absorption intensity shows the break down of the selection rule. The energy gap at zero field is evaluated to be 570 GHz(2.36 meV) and this value is nearly identical to the gap at the zone center observed by inelastic neutron scattering. The absorption intensity shows strong field orientation dependence but shows no significant dependence on magnetic field intensity. These features have been explained by considering the existence of Dzyaloshinsky-Moriya (DM) antisymmetric exchange interaction. The doping effect on this singlet-triplet excitation has been also studied. A drastic broadening of the absorption line is observed by the doping of only 0.5 % of Si.Comment: 6 pages, 8figures submitted to J. Phys. Soc. Jp

Infrared signatures of the spin-Peierls transition in CuGeO3

We investigated the infrared reflectivity of several Mg- and Si-substituted CuGeO3 single crystals. The temperature dependent b-axis and c-axis optical response is reported. For T<Tsp we detected the activation of zone-boundary phonons along the b axis of the crystal on the pure sample and for 1% Mg and 0.7% Si concentrations. From a detailed analysis of the phonon parameters the redshift of the B2u mode at 48 cm^-1 is observed and discussed in relation to the soft mode expected to drive the spin-Peierls phase transition in CuGeO3. Moreover, the polarization dependence of a magnetic excitation measured in transmission at 44 cm^-1 has been investigated.Comment: Revtex, 3 pages, 5 postscript pictures, submitted to PRB Rapid Communication

Spin fluctuations in CuGeO3_3 probed by light scattering

We have measured temperature dependence of low-frequency Raman spectra in CuGeO$_3$, and have observed the quasi-elastic scattering in the $(c,c)$ polarization above the spin-Peierls transition temperature. We attribute it to the fluctuations of energy density in the spin system. The magnetic specific heat and an inverse of the magnetic correlation length can be derived from the quasi-elastic scattering. The inverse of the magnetic correlation length is proportional to $(T-T_{SP})^{1/2}$ at high temperatures. We compare the specific heat with a competing-$J$ model. This model cannot explain quantitatively both the specific heat and the magnetic susceptibility with the same parameters. The origin of this discrepancy is discussed.Comment: 17 pages, REVTeX, 5 Postscript figures; in press in PR

Far-Infrared Spectroscopy in Spin-Peierls Compound CuGeO_3 under High Magnetic Fields

Polarized far-infrared (FIR) spectroscopic measurements and FIR magneto-optical studies were performed on the inorganic spin-Peierls compound CuGeO_3. An absorption line, which was found at 98 cm$^{-1}$ in the dimerized phase (D phase), was assigned to a folded phonon mode of B$_{3u}$ symmetry. The splitting of the folded mode into two components in the incommensurate phase (IC phase) has been observed for the first time. A new broad absorption centered at 63 cm$^{-1}$ was observed only in the ${\bf E}\parallel b$ axis polarization, which was assigned to a magnetic excitation from singlet ground state to a continuum state.Comment: 9 pages multicolREVTeX, 10 figure

Magnetic Excitations in quasi two-dimensional Spin-Peierls Systems

A study is presented of a two-dimensional frustrated and dimerized quantum spin-system which models the effect of inter-chain coupling in a spin-Peierls compound. Employing a bond-boson method to account for quantum disorder in the ground state the elementary excitations are evaluated in terms of gapful triplet modes. Results for the ground state energy and the spin gap are discussed. The triplet dispersion is found to be in excellent agreement with inelastic neutron scattering data in the dimerized phase of the spin-Peierls compound CuGeO_3. Moreover, consistent with these neutron scattering experiments, the low-temperature dynamic structure factor exhibits a high-energy continuum split off from the elementary triplet mode.Comment: 8 pages, Revtex, 8 eps-figure