Correlated Quantum Tunnelling of Monopoles in Spin Ice

Abstract

The spin ice materials Ho${}_2$Ti${}_2$O${}_7$ and Dy${}_2$Ti${}_2$O${}_7$ are by now perhaps the best-studied classical frustrated magnets. A crucial step towards the understanding of their low temperature behaviour -- both regarding their unusual dynamical properties and the possibility of observing their quantum coherent time evolution -- is a quantitative understanding of the spin-flip processes which underpin the hopping of magnetic monopoles. We attack this problem in the framework of a quantum treatment of a single-ion subject to the crystal, exchange and dipolar fields from neighbouring ions. By studying the fundamental quantum mechanical mechanisms, we discover a bimodal distribution of hopping rates which depends on the local spin configuration, in broad agreement with rates extracted from experiment. Applying the same analysis to Pr${}_2$Sn${}_2$O${}_7$ and Pr${}_2$Zr${}_2$O${}_7$, we find an even more pronounced separation of timescales signalling the likelihood of coherent many-body dynamics.

5 pages, 2 figures, 1 table; supplemental material attached

References in corpus (6)

• Why spin ice obeys the ice rules
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