Spin excitations of magnetoelectric LiNiPO4_4 in multiple magnetic phases

Spin excitations of magnetoelectric LiNiPO$_4$ are studied by infrared absorption spectroscopy in the THz spectral range as a function of magnetic field through various commensurate and incommensurate magnetically ordered phases up to 33\,T. Six spin resonances and a strong two-magnon continuum are observed in zero magnetic field. Our systematic polarization study reveals that some of the excitations are usual magnetic-dipole active magnon modes, while others are either electromagnons, electric-dipole active, or magnetoelectric, both electric- and magnetic-dipole active spin excitations. Field-induced shifts of the modes for all three orientations of the field along the orthorhombic axes allow us to refine the values of the relevant exchange couplings, single-ion anisotropies, and the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction on the level of a four-sublattice mean-field spin model. This model also reproduces the spectral shape of the two-magnon absorption continuum, found to be electric-dipole active in the experiment

The Magnetoelastic Distortion of Multiferroic BiFeO3_3 in the Canted Antiferromagnetic State

Using THz spectroscopy, we show that the spin-wave spectrum of multiferroic BiFeO$_3$ in its high-field canted antiferromagnetic state is well described by a spin model that violates rhombohedral symmetry. We demonstrate that the monoclinic distortion of the canted antiferromagnetic state is induced by the single-ion magnetoelastic coupling between the lattice and the two nearly anti-parallel spins. The revised spin model for BiFeO$_3$ contains two new single-ion anisotropy terms that violate rhombohedral symmetry and depend on the direction of the magnetic field.Comment: 28 pages (main & supplementary), 2 figures (main article), 15 figures (supplementary material

Experimental observation of quantum many-body excitations of E-8 symmetry in the Ising chain ferromagnet CoNb2O6

Close to the quantum critical point of the transverse-field Ising spin-chain model, an exotic dynamic spectrum was predicted to emerge upon a perturbative longitudinal field. The dynamic spectrum consists of eight particles and is governed by the symmetry of the E-8 Lie algebra. Here we report on high-resolution terahertz spectroscopy of quantum spin dynamics in the ferromagnetic Ising-chain material CoNb2O6. At 0.25 K in the magnetically ordered phase we identify characteristics of the first six E-8 particles, m(1) to m(6), and the two-particle (m(1) + m(2)) continuum in an applied transverse magnetic field of B-c(1D) = 4.75 T, before the three-dimensional magnetic order is suppressed above B-c(3T )approximate to( )5.3 T. The observation of the higher-energy particles (m(3) to m(6)) above the low-energy two-particle continua features quantum many-body effects in the exotic dynamic spectrum

Quantum spin dynamics of quasi-one-dimensional Heisenberg-Ising magnets in a transverse field: confined spinons, E-8 spectrum, and quantum phase transitions

We report on high-resolution terahertz spectroscopic studies of quantum spin dynamics in the quasi-one-dimensional Ising-like ferromagnet CoNb2O6 and antiferromagnet BaCo2V2O8 as a function of an applied transverse magnetic field. In the ordered phases stabilized by inter-chain couplings, we reveal characteristics for confined spinon excitations, E-8 dynamical spectrum, and field-induced quantum phase transitions. The connections between these characteristic dynamical features are found in the field-dependent evolution of the excitation spectra