The symmetry of the spin Hamiltonian in herbertsmithite, a spin-1/2 kagomé lattice

Abstract

We present magnetization measurements on oriented powder of ZnCu${}_3$(OH)${}_6$Cl${}_2$ along and perpendicular to the orienting field. We find a dramatic difference in the magnetization between the two directions. It is biggest at low measurement fields $H$ or high temperatures. We show that the difference at high temperatures must emerge from Ising-like exchange anisotropy. This allows us to explain muon spin rotation data at $T\to 0$ in terms of an exotic ferromagnetic ground state.

5 pages, 5 figures

References in corpus (4)

• Spin Dynamics of the Spin-1/2 Kagome Lattice Antiferromagnet ZnCu_3(OH)_6Cl_2
• Quantum magnetism in the paratacamite family: towards an ideal kagome lattice
• Spin chirality on a two-dimensional frustrated lattice
• ^{63}Cu, ^{35}Cl, and ^{1}H NMR in the S=1/2 Kagomé Lattice ZnCu_{3}(OH)_{6}Cl_{2}