The natural mineral azurite Cu3(CO3)2(OH)2 is an interesting spin-1/2 quantum
antiferromagnet. Recently, a generalised diamond chain model has been
established as a good description of the magnetic properties of azurite with
parameters placing it in a highly frustrated parameter regime. Here we explore
further properties of this model for azurite. First, we determine the inelastic
neutron scattering spectrum in the absence of a magnetic field and find good
agreement with experiments, thus lending further support to the model.
Furthermore, we present numerical data for the magnetocaloric effect and
predict that strong cooling should be observed during adiabatic
(de)magnetisation of azurite in magnetic fields slightly above 30T. Finally,
the presence of a dominant dimer interaction in azurite suggests the use of
effective Hamiltonians for an effective low-energy description and we propose
that such an approach may be useful to fully account for the three-dimensional
coupling geometry.Comment: 19 pages, 6 figures; to appear in: J. Phys.: Condens. Matter (special
issue on geometrically frustrated magnetism