Magnetic Susceptibility of the Kagome Antiferromagnet ZnCu3(OH)6Cl2

We analyze the experimental data for the magnetic susceptibility of the material ZnCu3(OH)6Cl2 in terms of the Kagome Lattice Heisenberg model (KLHM), discussing possible role of impurity spins, dilution, exchange anisotropy, and both out-of-plane and in-plane Dzyaloshinsky-Moriya (DM) anisotropies, with explicit theoretical calculations using the Numerical Linked Cluster (NLC) method and exact diagonalization (ED). The high-temperature experimental data are well described by the pure Heisenberg model with J=170 K. We show that the sudden upturn in the susceptibility around T=75 K is due to DM interactions. We also observe that at intermediate temperatures, below T=J, our calculated susceptibility for KLHM fits well with a power law T^{-0.25}.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, published versio

Polarized neutron scattering studies of the kagome lattice antiferromagnet KFe3(OH)6(SO4)2

We report polarized neutron scattering studies of spin-wave excitations and spin fluctuations in the S=5/2 kagome lattice antiferromagnet KFe3(OH)6(SO4)2 (jarosite). Inelastic polarized neutron scattering measurements at 10 K on a single crystal sample reveal two spin gaps, associated with in-plane and out-of-plane excitations. The polarization analysis of quasi-elastic scattering at 67 K shows in-plane spin fluctuations with XY symmetry, consistent with the disappearance of the in-plane gap above the Neel temperature T_N = 65 K. Our results suggest that jarosite is a promising candidate for studying the 2D XY universality class in magnetic systems.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figures, Proceeding to the 7th International Workshop on Polarized Neutrons for Condensed Matter Investigations and 2nd International Symposium of Quantum Beam Science Directorat

A study of long range order in certain two-dimensional frustrated lattices

We have studied the Heisenberg antiferromagnets on two-dimensional frustrated lattices, triangular and kagome lattices using linear spin-wave theory. A collinear ground state ordering is possible if one of the three bonds in each triangular plaquette of the lattice becomes weaker or frustrated. We study spiral order in the Heisenberg model along with Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya (DM) interaction and in the presence of a magnetic field. The quantum corrections to the ground state energy and sublattice magnetization are calculated analytically in the case of triangular lattice with nearesr-neighbour interaction. The corrections depend on the DM interaction strength and the magnetic field. We find that the DM interaction stabilizes the long-range order, reducing the effect of quantum fluctuations. Similar conclusions are reached for the kagome lattice. We work out the linear spin-wave theory at first with only nearest-neighbour (nn) terms for the kagome lattice. We find that the nn interaction is not sufficient to remove the effects of low energy fluctuations. The flat branch in the excitation spectrum becomes dispersive on addition of furthet neighbour interactions. The ground state energy and the excitation spectrum have been obtained for various cases.Comment: 18 pages, 9 figure

Spin Dynamics of the Spin-1/2 Kagome Lattice Antiferromagnet ZnCu_3(OH)_6Cl_2

We have performed thermodynamic and neutron scattering measurements on the S=1/2 kagome lattice antiferromagnet Zn Cu_3 (OH)_6 Cl_2. The susceptibility indicates a Curie-Weiss temperature of ~ -300 K; however, no magnetic order is observed down to 50 mK. Inelastic neutron scattering reveals a spectrum of low energy spin excitations with no observable gap down to 0.1 meV. The specific heat at low-T follows a power law with exponent less than or equal to 1. These results suggest that an unusual spin-liquid state with essentially gapless excitations is realized in this kagome lattice system.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures; v2: Updates to authors list and references; v3: Updated version; v4: Published versio

Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction and spin re-orientation transition in the frustrated kagome lattice antiferromagnet

Magnetization, specific heat, and neutron scattering measurements were performed to study a magnetic transition in jarosite, a spin-5/2 kagome lattice antiferromagnet. When a magnetic field is applied perpendicular to the kagome plane, magnetizations in the ordered state show a sudden increase at a critical field H_c, indicative of the transition from antiferromagnetic to ferromagnetic states. This sudden increase arises as the spins on alternate kagome planes rotate 180 degrees to ferromagnetically align the canted moments along the field direction. The canted moment on a single kagome plane is a result of the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction. For H < H_c, the weak ferromagnetic interlayer coupling forces the spins to align in such an arrangement that the canted components on any two adjacent layers are equal and opposite, yielding a zero net magnetic moment. For H > H_c, the Zeeman energy overcomes the interlayer coupling causing the spins on the alternate layers to rotate, aligning the canted moments along the field direction. Neutron scattering measurements provide the first direct evidence of this 180-degree spin rotation at the transition.Comment: 13 pages, 15 figure

Spin chirality on a two-dimensional frustrated lattice

The collective behavior of interacting magnetic moments can be strongly influenced by the topology of the underlying lattice. In geometrically frustrated spin systems, interesting chiral correlations may develop that are related to the spin arrangement on triangular plaquettes. We report a study of the spin chirality on a two-dimensional geometrically frustrated lattice. Our new chemical synthesis methods allow us to produce large single crystal samples of KFe3(OH)6(SO4)2, an ideal Kagome lattice antiferromagnet. Combined thermodynamic and neutron scattering measurements reveal that the phase transition to the ordered ground-state is unusual. At low temperatures, application of a magnetic field induces a transition between states with different non-trivial spin-textures.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure

Slow Relaxation of Spin Structure in Exotic Ferromagnetic Phase of Ising-like Heisenberg Kagome Antiferromagnets

In the corner-sharing lattice, magnetic frustration causes macroscopic degeneracy in the ground state, which prevents systems from ordering. However, if the ensemble of the degenerate configuration has some global structure, the system can have a symmetry breaking phenomenon and thus posses a finite temperature phase transition. As a typical example of such cases, the magnetic phase transition of the Ising-like Heisenberg antiferromagnetic model on the kagome lattice has been studied. There, a phase transition of the two-dimensional ferromagnetic Ising universality class occurs accompanying with the uniform spontaneous magnetization. Because of the macroscopic degeneracy in the ordered phase, the system is found to show an entropy-driven ordering process, which is quantitatively characterized by the number of ``weathervane loop''. We investigate this novel type of slow relaxation in regularly frustrated system.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figure

Toward Perfection: Kapellasite, Cu3Zn(OH)6Cl2, a New Model S = 1/2 Kagome Antiferromagnet

The search for the resonating valence bond (RVB) state continues to underpin many areas of condensed matter research. The RVB is made from the dimerisation of spins on different sites into fluctuating singlets, and was proposed by Anderson to be the reference state from which the transition to BCS superconductivity occurs. Little is known about the state experimentally, due to the scarcity of model materials. Theoretical work has put forward the S = 1/2 kagome antiferromagnet (KAFM) as a good candidate for the realization of the RVB state. In this paper we introduce a new model system, the S = 1/2 KAFM Kapellasite, Cu3Zn(OH)6Cl2. We show that its crystal structure is a good approximation to a 2-dimensional kagome antiferromagnet and that susceptibility data indicate a collapse of the magnetic moment below T = 25 K that is compatible with the spins condensing into the non-magnetic RVB state.Comment: Communication, 3 pages, 3 figure

Co3(SO4)3(OH)2[enH2]: a newS= 3/2 Kagome-type layered sulfate with a unique connectivity

The Kagome lattice, comprising a two-dimensional array of corner-sharing equilateral triangles, is central to the exploration of magnetic frustration. In such a lattice, antiferromagnetic coupling between ions in triangular plaquettes prevents all of the exchange interactions being simultaneously satisfied and a variety of novel magnetic ground states may result at low temperature. Experimental realization of a Kagome lattice remains difficult. The jarosite family of materials of nominal composition AM3(SO4)2(OH)6 (A = monovalent cation; M= Fe3+, Cr3+), offers perhaps one of the most promising manifestations of the phenomenon of magnetic frustration in two dimensions. The magnetic properties of jarosites are however extremely sensitive to the degree of coverage of magnetic sites. Consequently, there is considerable interest in the use of soft chemical techniques for the design and synthesis of novel materials in which to explore the effects of spin, degree of site coverage and connectivity on magnetic frustration

Magnetoelectric ordering of BiFeO3 from the perspective of crystal chemistry

In this paper we examine the role of crystal chemistry factors in creating conditions for formation of magnetoelectric ordering in BiFeO3. It is generally accepted that the main reason of the ferroelectric distortion in BiFeO3 is concerned with a stereochemical activity of the Bi lone pair. However, the lone pair is stereochemically active in the paraelectric orthorhombic beta-phase as well. We demonstrate that a crucial role in emerging of phase transitions of the metal-insulator, paraelectric-ferroelectric and magnetic disorder-order types belongs to the change of the degree of the lone pair stereochemical activity - its consecutive increase with the temperature decrease. Using the structural data, we calculated the sign and strength of magnetic couplings in BiFeO3 in the range from 945 C down to 25 C and found the couplings, which undergo the antiferromagnetic-ferromagnetic transition with the temperature decrease and give rise to the antiferromagnetic ordering and its delay in regard to temperature, as compared to the ferroelectric ordering. We discuss the reasons of emerging of the spatially modulated spin structure and its suppression by doping with La3+.Comment: 18 pages, 5 figures, 3 table