A Magnetic Model of the Tetragonal-Orthorhombic Transition in the Cuprates

Abstract

It is shown that a quasi two dimensional (layered) Heisenberg antiferromagnet with fully frustrated interplane couplings ({\it e.g.} on a body-centered tetragonal lattice) generically exhibits two thermal phase transitions with lowering temperature -- an upper transition at $T_{TO}$ (``order from disorder without order'') in which the lattice point-group symmetry is spontaneously broken, and a lower Néel transition at $T_N$ at which spin-rotation symmetry is broken. Although this is the same sequence of transitions observed in La${}_2$CuO${}_4$, in the Heisenberg model (without additional lattice degrees of freedom) $(T_{TO}-T_N)/T_N$ is much smaller than is observed. The model may apply to the bilayer cuprate La${}_2$CaCuO${}_6$, in which the transitions are nearly coincident.

arXiv comment10 pages, 4 figures

References in corpus (8)

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• Ising transition driven by frustration in a 2D classical model with SU(2) symmetry
• Unusual magnetic susceptibility anisotropy in untwinned La_{2-x}Sr_xCuO_4 single crystals in the lightly-doped region
• Ising transition in the two-dimensional quantum $J_1-J_2$ Heisenberg model
• Order by disorder, without order, in a two-dimensional spin system with O(2) symmetry
• Magnetic susceptibility anisotropies in a two-dimensional quantum Heisenberg antiferromagnet with Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions
• Neutron scattering study on La1.9Ca1.1Cu2O6+delta and La1.85Sr0.15CaCu2O6+delta
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• Absence of nematic ordering transition in a diamond lattice: Application to $FeS{c}_2{S}_4$