Quantum effects in a half-polarized pyrochlore antiferromagnet

Abstract

We study quantum effects in a spin-3/2 antiferromagnet on the pyrochlore lattice in an external magnetic field, focusing on the vicinity of a plateau in the magnetization at half the saturation value, observed in CdCr${}_2$O${}_4$, and HgCr${}_2$O${}_4$. Our theory, based on quantum fluctuations, predicts the existence of a symmetry-broken state on the plateau, even with only nearest-neighbor microscopic exchange. This symmetry broken state consists of a particular arrangement of spins polarized parallel and antiparallel to the field in a 3:1 ratio on each tetrahedron. It quadruples the lattice unit cell, and reduces the space group from $Fd\bar{3}m$ to $P{4}_{3}32$. We also predict that for fields just above the plateau, the low temperature phase has transverse spin order, describable as a Bose-Einstein condensate of magnons. Other comparisons to and suggestions for experiments are discussed.

References in corpus (12)

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• Realization of Bose-Einstein condensation of dilute magnons in TlCuCl${}_3$
• Pyrochlore Photons: The U(1) Spin Liquid in a S=1/2 Three-Dimensional Frustrated Magnet
• Coulomb and Liquid Dimer Models in Three Dimensions
• Direct Measurement of the Spin Hamiltonian and Observation of Condensation of Magnons in the 2D Frustrated Quantum Magnet Cs2CuCl4
• Half-magnetization plateau stabilized by structural distortion in the antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model on a pyrochlore lattice
• Thermodynamic Properties of the Dipolar Spin Ice Model
• The phase diagram of the hexagonal lattice quantum dimer model
• Spin-Peierls phases in pyrochlore antiferromagnets
• Field induced ordering in highly frustrated antiferromagnets
• Bose-Einstein Condensation of Magnons in TlCuCl3: Phase diagram and specific heat from a self-consistent Hartee-Fock calculation with a realistic dispersion relation
• Bond order from disorder in the planar pyrochlore magnet

Cited by in corpus (38)

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• Spin-lattice instability to a fractional magnetization state in the spinel HgCr2O4
• Highly Frustrated Magnetic Clusters: The kagome on a sphere
• Mechanisms of degeneracy breaking in pyrochlore antiferromagnets
• Coulomb gas transitions in three-dimensional classical dimer models
• Nematic, vector-multipole, and plateau-liquid states in the classical O(3) pyrochlore antiferromagnet with biquadratic interactions in applied magnetic field
• A direct measurement of the Bose-Einstein Condensation universality class in NiCl${}_2$-4SC(NH${}_2$)${}_2$ at ultra-low temperatures
• Lattice gas description of pyrochlore and checkerboard antiferromagnets in a strong magnetic field
• Extended quantum U(1)-liquid phase in a three-dimensional quantum dimer model
• Phase diagram of an extended classical dimer model
• Ordering in a frustrated pyrochlore antiferromagnet proximate to a spin liquid
• Fragmentation in Frustrated Magnets -- A review
• A quantum liquid with deconfined fractional excitations in three dimensions
• Interplay of Spin and Lattice Degrees of Freedom in the Frustrated Antiferromagnet CdCr_2O_4: High-field and Temperature Induced Anomalies of the Elastic Constants
• Degenerate perturbation theory of quantum fluctuations in a pyrochlore antiferromagnet
• Zero-temperature Kosterlitz-Thouless transition in a two-dimensional quantum system
• Monopole holes in a partially ordered spin liquid
• Dynamical dimer correlations at bipartite and non-bipartite Rokhsar-Kivelson points
• Neel to Spin-Glass-like Phase Transition versus Dilution in Geometrically Frustrated ZnCr_{2-2x}Ga_{2x}O_4
• Anharmonic Ground state selection in the pyrochlore antiferromagnet
• Phase diagram of the Cairo pentagonal XXZ spin-1/2 magnet under a magnetic field
• Dynamical stability of the quantum Lifshitz theory in 2+1 Dimensions
• Effective Hamiltonians for large-S pyrochlore antiferromagnet
• Quantum Melting of Valence Bond Crystal Insulators and Novel Supersolid Phase at Commensurate Density
• High-Temperature Criticality in Strongly Constrained Quantum Systems
• Field driven magnetostructural transitions in GeCo${}_2$O${}_4$
• The Polarized Monopole Liquid: a Coulomb phase in a fluid of magnetic charges
• Half-magnetization plateaux in Cr spinels
• Half-Magnetization Plateau of a Dipolar Spin Ice in a [100] Field
• Criticality of a classical dimer model on the triangular lattice
• Fermionic quantum dimer and fully-packed loop models on the square lattice
• Effective Hamiltonians for some highly frustrated magnets
• Magnetization process and ordering of the $S=1/2$ pyrochlore magnet in a field
• The role of multiplicative noise in critical dynamics
• Hopfions in lattice dimer model
• Depleted pyrochlore antiferromagnets
• Coupling quantum spin ice to matter on the centered pyrochlore lattice