Specific Heat of the Kagome Antiferromagnet Herbertsmithite in High Magnetic Fields

Abstract

Measuring the specific heat of herbertsmithite single crystals in high magnetic fields (up to $34$ T) allows us to isolate the low-temperature kagome contribution while shifting away extrinsic Schottky-like contributions. The kagome contribution follows an original power law $C_p(T\to 0)\propto T^{\alpha }$ with $\alpha \sim 1.5$ and is found field-independent between $28$ and $34$ T for temperatures $1\le T\le 4$ K. These are serious constrains when it comes to replication using low-temperature extrapolations of high-temperature series expansions. We manage to reproduce the experimental observations if about $10$ % of the kagome sites do not contribute. Between $0$ and $34$ T, the computed specific heat has a minute field dependence then supporting an algebraic temperature dependence in zero field, typical of a critical spin liquid ground state. The need for an effective dilution of the kagome planes is discussed and is likely linked to the presence of copper ions on the interplane zinc sites. At very low temperatures and moderate fields, we also report some small field-induced anomalies in the total specific heat and start to elaborate a phase diagram.

10 pages, 5 figures

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• Thermodynamic evidence of fermionic behavior in the vicinity of one-ninth plateau in a kagome antiferromagnet
• Partially disordered Heisenberg antiferromagnet with short-range stripe correlations
• Magnetic field-temperature phase diagram of spin-1/2 triangular lattice antiferromagnet KYbSe${}_2$
• Is Herbertsmithite far from an ideal antiferromagnet? Ab-initio answer including in-plane Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions and coupling with extra-plane impurities
• Dynamical spin correlations in kagome antiferromagnets: comparison of Abrikosov fermion and Schwinger boson approaches beyond mean field
• Electron correlation effects and spin-liquid state in the Herbertsmithite Kagome lattice
• Witnessing Disorder in Quantum Magnets
• Emergence of a Fluctuating Ground State in Y-kapellasite under Pressure
• Specific heat and susceptibility of S=1/2 antiferromagnets on square, triangular, and kagome lattices
• High-field magnetic properties of the alternating ferro-antiferromagnetic spin-chain compound Cu${}_2$(OH)${}_3$Br